Messe Düsseldorf and the European Association for Renewable Energy (EUROSOLAR) agreed at the end of last October to work together more closely in the future. They signed a collaboration agreement to better link the International Renewable Energy Storage Conference (IRES) with the Energy Storage Europe (ESE). The tenth year since its inception will see IRES – which is considered by its organizers to be the “leading conference on research and social aspects of energy storage” – merge with ESE, a conference primarily focused on economic and financial issues. After participants who came to the conferences over the last two years voiced their confusion about which event was more appropriate to attend, the new contract and the combination of the best of both worlds is hoped to make up for the prior lack of clarity. Most probably, there will be a combined conference ticket for the key issues.

Hans Werner Reinhard, CEO of Messe Düsseldorf, explained: “Many visitors will now find it infinitely easier to create their own individual program tailored exactly to their needs.” Irm Scheer-Pontenagel, CEO of EUROSOLAR, added: “The conference partnership guarantees that researchers, scientists, industry and business representatives as well as politicians can enter into a dialog with one another.”