NICOLA Sturgeon will take part in the opening plenary session of next month’s All-Energy 2017 conference in Glasgow, it has been confirmed.

The First Minister will be joined by Scottish Government ministers Humza Yousaf and Paul Wheelhouse at the event, which runs from May 10-11 at the Scottish Event Campus. It is the UK’s largest renewable energy exhibition and conference, held annually since 2001.

Transport Minister Yousaf will be speaking at the co-located Smart Urban Mobility Solutions conference, while Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, will deliver a keynote address in the plenary session looking at the effects of Brexit on the renewable and low-carbon energy sectors.

Sir Ed Davey, former secretary of state and founder and director at Energy Destinations, will chair a conference session entitled Local Energy, one of 24 themes running through 55 free-to-attend conference sessions, and day-long “quick-fire” seminar theatre programmes.

“We are delighted to be providing a platform for so many ministers,” said event director, Jonathan Heastie of Reed Exhibitions. “They join industry luminaries in our programme – and include Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer of ScottishPower and chief executive officer of ScottishPower Renewables; Professor Sir Jim McDonald, principal and vice chancellor of Strathclyde University and so many more.

“Indeed, there are some 400 speakers over the two days, all experts in the topics they are addressing, some in very senior positions, some handling day-to-day engineering challenges; and academics at every level – indeed this year we have a record number of academic posters.”

Other speakers include the likes of Prof Jim Watson of UKERC; Benj Sykes, UK country manager, Dong Energy Wind Power; Matthew Knight, director of energy strategy and government affairs, Siemens UK; Iain Watson, director, UK Green Investment Bank; Jonathan Cole, managing director, Offshore Iberdrola Renewables Offshore Wind Division; Tim Cornelius, chairman of MeyGen and CEO of Atlantis Resources.

All-Energy is held in association with the Renewable Energy Association, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Enterprise and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group. A further 40 organisations including government departments, professional bodies and trade associations act as supporters of the two-day annual event, with Shepherd and Wedderburn the event’s headline sponsor.

“We also have up to 400 exhibiting companies from 16 countries ranging from A for the Advanced Forming Research Centre, Aggreko, Ansys and others to Z for Zephir LiDAR and representing virtually every letter of the alphabet in between,” continued Heastie.

“Our 15 sector-specific trails will help visitors find those of most relevance to them, as will our dedicated areas of the show – the Heat Zone, the Energy Storage Zone, and our new co-located event Smart Urban Mobility Solutions in which an ever-growing number of low carbon vehicles will be on display, ranging from Teslas and BMWs to two bespoke vehicles built for the Shell Eco-marathon by students from the University of the West of Scotland and University of Strathclyde.

“I am glad to say that registrations to attend All-Energy are coming in thick and fast.”