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6 Apr 2022
The first Energy Cluster Summit, which was attended by the Basque Government and the European Commission, served as a meeting point for more than 20 clusters from Europe, America and Asia.
The session was opened by Mikel Amundarain, Deputy Minister for Industry of the Basque Government, and Ulla Engelmann, Head of the Industrial Forum, Alliances and Clusters Unit of DG GROW of the European Commission, the key people responsible for cluster policies in the Basque Country and in the European Union respectively, highlighting the importance of the event both in terms of the strategic position of the energy sector today and the growing recognition of clusters as the backbone and support elements in the economic and technological development of industrial sectors.
The centre part of the day featured three presentations aimed at showcasing examples and best practices of successful inter-cluster collaborations in the field of offshore wind energy. José Ignacio Hormaeche (Managing Director of ACE) started by describing the Basque cluster’s different experiences in the field of international collaboration, highlighting the role of the ELBE alliance in which it has collaborated with seven other European associations to promote offshore renewable energies. The next speaker was Liz Burdock, CEO and President of the US Business Network for Offshore Wind, an entity with which ELBE signed a collaboration agreement last year. She explained the impressive potential of the offshore wind market in the USA in the upcoming decades. The last presentation was given by Karolina Lipinska, Executive Director of the Office of the Marshall of Pomerania, who outlined the case of the recently created offshore wind platform in the Polish region, which already has more than 100 members in just over a year.
The session ended with pitch presentations by 12 other energy sector clusters, which were:
The presentations provided an introduction to their profile and main experiences, as a first point of contact for identifying opportunities for future collaboration.
Welcome reception for international delegations
As a first opportunity for networking, the clusters attending had the chance to take part in a welcome reception for international delegations organised by Basque Trade & Investment in collaboration with ACE.
The cocktail event, which was opened by the Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, and the Managing Director of Basque Trade & Investment, Ainhoa Ondarzabal, was attended by more than 100 representatives from the various international delegations invited (Belgium, Korea, Denmark, the United States, France, Norway, Sweden and Turkey) as well as the heads of the leading Basque companies in the energy sector.
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