In just over ten years, half our electricity will be generated from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, and we will travel using increasingly numerous electric vehicles: estimates talk about a global penetration of 55% of battery-driven cars; traditional combustion systems will gradually disappear.

This is the low-carbon future forecast by many people for European cities and which will be anticipated at Key Energy, the main expo for renewables, which will be held from 6-9 November 2018 at Rimini Expo Centre simultaneously with Ecomondo.

The 2018 edition of Key Energy, also organised by Italian Exhibition Group, highlights photovoltaic energy and energy storage systems, solutions for energy efficiency in industry and the residential sector and those for sustainable and connected mobility. Now at its 12th edition, the international trade fair for renewable energy and sustainable mobility is re-launching Key Solar and Key Storage, the two new 2017 features, which will be back in 2018, boosted by the participation of numerous international brands.

Rimini’s Energy Transition Hub confirms Key Wind, the key event that is the reference point for the wind energy industry, which also addresses the Balkan and Middle East markers, organised in collaboration with Italy’s National Wind Energy Association, and will feature the participation of all the major industry members and manufacturers of on-shore e off-shore plants.

Hall B5 will once more also host Key Efficiency, the section dedicated to technology, systems and solution for intelligent use of energy sources in an industrial context.

Once again this year, ENEA will have the task of presenting and discussing in the Energy Room the issues of energy efficiency in industry, with topics such as: the evolution of energy diagnosis in the light of the decree for conventional and unconventional companies with large-scale energy consumption; instruments for the economic assessment of work to improve energy efficiency; and in the residential field, providing means for assessing new contracts and financial facilities dedicated to buildings’ energy efficiency and on the value of efficiency on the real estate market.

Lastly, sustainable mobility will be represented at the core of Key Energy-Ecomondo by new green technologies dedicated to transport and the numerous examples of shared mobility: car sharing, bike sharing and car pooling.

Among the initiatives of Key Energy on tour, a fundamental stop dedicated to solar energy and energy storage, a technical symposium has been organised in Milan, and will be held on 3 May at the Hotel Michelangelo.

The conference will offer insight on the situation in various contexts – from revamping and storage, to “utility scale” plants and solar communities – in which an acceleration of the action in the light of the SEN’s ambitious objectives is expected.

Speakers will include Gianni Silvestrini, scientific director of Kyoto Club and chairman of the Key Energy Scientific Committee; Leonardo Botti ANIE Rinnovabili councillor; Paolo Rocco Viscontini president, Italia Solare; Agostino Re Rebaudengo vice-president, Elettricità Futura; and Fabio Zanellini chairman, Storage Commission and smart grid group, ANIE Energia; Massimo Ricci Wholesale Energy and Environmental Sustainability Market management, ARERA; Tommaso Barbetti founding partner, ELeMeNS; Carlo Cascella head of Italian Business Development, Enel Green Power; Roberto Vigotti secretary general, RES4MED.

This will be followed by a round table at which participants will include representatives such as Canadian Solar, EF Solare, Hendor Capital Ltd, Moroni & Partners, Senec and Sonnen.

Patrizia Cecchi and Alessandra Astolfi will speak on behalf of Italian Exhibition Group.