IRENA Innovation Week 2018

IRENA Innovation Week 2018: Solutions for a Renewable-Powered Future is an action-focused gathering of around 250 leading companies, innovators and policy makers from across IRENA's diverse global membership, convened to explore how innovations in enabling technologies, business models, system operations and sector coupling can accelerate the renewable power transition. Ministers and senior executives will be attending the high-level segment on late Thursday afternoon and on Friday morning.

Policy makers attending had an opportunity to learn from their counterparts and leading innovators about the status and opportunities arising from emerging innovations. Innovators and innovative companies attending had an opportunity to inform the strategies of a diverse range of policy makers, from around the world. Together policy makers and innovators improved their mutual awareness of the opportunities and challenges created by emerging innovations and explored ways to broaden uptake.

In the two years since Innovation Week 2016, we have seen further remarkable cost reductions in renewable energy to the extent that many commercially available renewable power generation technologies will be competitive with conventional fuels by 2020. In parallel, we are witnessing transformative changes in the way energy systems are operated, driven by trends such as the growing digitalisation of systems, the increased decentralisation of electricity supply, the need for system flexibility, and the electrification of end-use sectors.

While the transformation of the power sector is well underway, the challenge now is to build on the potential of low-cost renewable power and ensure all countries can reliably integrate high shares in their power systems.

To find out more about the event, visit innovationweek.irena.org or contact innovationweek@irena.org, or read IRENA Innovation Week Discusses & Dissects Disruption in the Energy Sector and A Digitalised, Decentralised Future is Around the Corner.

Photos from the event can be found on IRENA's Flickr account.

Plenary sessions, a roundtable discussion, and the conclusion of the event were livestreamed from IRENA's Facebook page and can be viewed below.