Practical information
As part of Ifri Energy Breakfast Roundtable series, a seminar with Michel Dervedet, Director of Communication and Public Affairs Division, RTE, Régis Hourdouillie, Product Strategy and Smart Grid Program Director, Areva, T&D and Guido Bartels, Gridwise Chairman (tbc).
Chaired by: William C. Ramsay, Senior Fellow, Director of the Ifri Energy Program and Jacques Lesourne, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Ifri Energy Program.
The Smart grids technologies are promoted by many governments as a way of addressing energy security and climate change challenges. However in light of the investments involved, there is more to it than a simple upgrading of the current network. This seminar will showcase current deployments of smart grids in the US and in Europe examining regulatory, commercial, market and industry issues. Our experts will discuss various issues surrounding Smart Grid including costs, benefits and the regulatory framework that would give investors long term visibility. Smart grids have to be smart from production to consumption. For this occasion we are looking upstream at the producers of power including solar and wind. In a later edition we will examine smart grids at the point of consumption.
Other events
Nuclear Sharing in Europe: A Contested Policy That Endures
Since the end of the Cold War, the number of US nuclear weapons stationed in Europe has fallen more than seventy-fold, yet their presence in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey remains a quiet pillar of NATO's deterrence posture. This "nuclear sharing" arrangement, central to the Alliance since its founding, has long been contested by public opinion, political parties, and civil society across Europe, without ever being abandoned by host governments. This paradox lies at the heart of the seminar: why does such an unpopular policy persist?