Net Zero Industry Wales puts bold ideas front and centre at its annual EmpowerCymru conference

Net Zero Industry Wales’ (NZIW) annual EmpowerCymru conference took place last Monday (10 March) at Techniquest in Cardiff Bay, with 200 delegates in attendance. Returning for its second year, the event aimed to bring together the decarbonisation community to identify solutions to some of the challenges facing the clean energy transition in Wales.  

EmpowerCymru included addresses from Rebecca Evans MS, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy, and Planning; and Samuel Kurtz MS, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and the Welsh Language, and two panels discussing how to build a modern industrial strategy for Wales and how to mobilise the nation for deployment of clean energy projects.

Speakers came from government, industry, finance, and policy and included: Welsh Government, Aldersgate Group, Private Energy Partners, Temporis Capital, RenewableUK Cymru, Wales & West Utilities, GB Energy, SP Energy Networks, enfinium, EY, and the University of South Wales.

As part of EmpowerCymru, NZIW launched its Industrial Strategy for Wales. The strategy explains in detail how Wales can be a leading clean energy transition hub and a cornerstone of the UK industrial base by unlocking the economic potential around non-pipeline transport of CO2, floating offshore wind, and the North-South Wales electricity transmission interconnector (PSNC). It also identifies cross-sector growth opportunities in the shape of AI and advanced manufacturing, the materials recovery industries, and compound semiconductors.

The delivery of the industrial strategy will be empowered by NZIW, which, to date, has put collaborative partnerships front and centre — supporting both the South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) and the North East Wales Industrial Decarbonisation (NEWID) cluster in developing and deploying industrial decarbonisation plans for those regions.

As part of the day’s events, attendees also had the opportunity to take part in a ‘mini-hackathon’, facilitated by Sweetmans & Partners, where they were asked to create solutions to the challenges being faced by industry and partners of industry in their mission to decarbonise Wales.

The ideas generated ranged from platforms for data sharing to vehicles for investment and funding of clean energy projects, to new mandates supporting future generations, and innovative energy sources. The output of the mini-hackathon will be used to support NZIW’s mission to make Wales the country of choice for the production of sustainable goods and services — whilst taking some of the solutions forward with the intention of using them to help industry to decarbonise.

The programme also saw a Fireside Chat, chaired by Net Zero Industry Wales CEO, Ben Burggraaf, alongside Techniquest and the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner, which considered how to better engage young people and ensure that we leave a legacy for them as part of the clean energy transition.

Some key takeaways from the day included:

• There is ‘money on the table’ for clean energy projects – but the pitch and the project framework must be right and conversations need to begin well in advance

• We need to do more to engage future generations and should be talking to students about the great opportunities the net zero transition offers in terms of jobs, skills, and their local communities

• We need to move at speed now to capitalise on the great work that has begun as part of SWIC and NEWID; now is the time for action

The day was made possible by EmpowerCymru sponsors Vale, enfinium, Turley, and Copper Communications.

Ben Burggraaf, CEO of Net Zero Industry Wales, said:

“It was great to see so many people coming together to talk about how we can build an industrial strategy for Wales and mobilise the nation to deploy these clean energy projects.

“I would also like to thank the Cabinet Secretary and Shadow Cabinet Secretary, and all of our speakers, sponsors and exhibitors for making the event such a success. We were really impressed by the quality of conversation in the room and plan to use our takeaways from EmpowerCymru as we go forward to support the clean energy transition here in Wales.”

Rosie Sweetman, Director of Sweetmans & Partners, said:

“Thank you to everyone who took part in the mini-hackathon, there was a really strong energy and commitment from the participants and the way they engaged with the challenge question made for a really productive session. All ideas had potential — some were already in motion, others offered new approaches.

“We will continue to work with Net Zero Industry Wales to take forward some of the proposed solutions and look forward to supporting the decarbonisation community and the clean energy transition here in Wales.”

For more information, please contact info@nziw.wales