Okay, I admit it. When I went to Cologne last June, I probably didn’t attend as many sessions as I should have to make the absolute most of Renewable Energy World Europe 2012. After all, I had brought the whole family and it was just so much fun watching my daughter take in the ENORMOUS exhibit halls where REW merged with POWER-GEN Europe. There were coal igniters sparking, sterling engines, combined cycle mini units, cool new thermal PV and wind technologies… even I was gaga over such things as the posh, two-story exhibits handing out Turkish trail mix and other goodies, piping exhibits and the wonderful people at the Saudi Aramco booth in the middle of the REW exhibit spaces.

But, the people and the sessions they presented were just as eye opening. And, as I sat listening to my fellow panelists in our Renewable Energy Policy & Finance session, I was struck by how quickly the RE game is changing in Europe—even in the few months since I had first conceived of my paper topic. These folks were keeping up, and I gathered many updates and other tidbits to incorporate into my presentation on the fly.

If you are interested in my paper—which assesses London’s Renewable Energy Foundation’s (REF)recommendations for how to “correct” the UK’s Renewables Obligation to more justly promote EE and RE, you can grab the paper and the slides right here:

 REF on the RO in the UK [PDF paper] • REF on the RO in the UK [PDF slides]

One of the amazing things about writing this paper and presenting it in Germany this summer was that I had pieced together the fact that many organizations had come to the same conclusions that REF had—and, that Parliament was in the process of implementing some of those recommendations literally as I was speaking. REF—and I—couldn’t have asked for better validation.

To get a feel for the conference, check out this “Daily News” video from REW. You can find a snippet of an interview with me around the 2-minute time index.