Registration Closing Wednesday for 2022 Kansas Renewable Energy Conference

TOPEKA — Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland today said there still is time to register for the upcoming 2022 Kansas Renewable Energy Conference. Those interested, however, will need to act quickly. Registrations for the Oct. 3-4 event in Manhattan will close at 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, September 28th.

“Renewable energy is a rapidly developing and growing segment of the state economy,” Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of Commerce David Toland said. “Wind energy alone, our state’s leading source for electricity generation, has attracted more than $15 billion of investment to Kansas. This conference will provide a great opportunity to further our role as a leader in the renewable energy industry.”

The Kansas Department of Commerce holds the Renewable Energy Conference every year to showcase the latest trends and developments in the renewable energy industry. After a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic, the conference will return in-person at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manhattan.

The conference will have three general sessions and four breakout sessions on topics of wind energy and transmission, solar energy and storage, hydrogen development, electric vehicles, and renewable natural gas, as well as a panel featuring public and private sector perspectives from within the industry.

This year’s conference will be highlighted by U.S. Department of Energy representative Crystal Perkins, who will discuss the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The Act includes funding and incentives for clean power generation and storage, domestic manufacturing of clean energy and transportation technologies. IRA also will make purchasing energy-efficient appliances more affordable for Kansas families and support climate-smart agricultural practices.

In addition, the conference will feature a session with Southwest Power Pool representative Mike Ross that will discuss the state of the power grid and how transmission facilitates renewable energy growth.

The conference will also feature business and community leaders discussing renewable energy developments in wind, solar, storage and hydrogen, and highlighting the economic impacts associated with these areas. Program sessions will look at innovations in transportation and the role of transmission in facilitating renewable energy growth and economic expansion.

Conference attendees will have the chance to test drive two electric vehicles provided by Evergy and learn how businesses can receive funding to install charging infrastructure. The two EVs that will be at the conference will be Ford’s F-150 Lightning and Volkswagen’s compact SUV, the VW ID.4.

This year’s conference sponsors include: 

Platinum Sponsors

• ITC Great Plains
• NextEra Energy
• Polsinelli

Gold Sponsors

• Evergy
• Olsson
• Ørsted

Silver Sponsors

• Alltite, Inc.
• Cromwell Solar
• Decker Electric, Inc.
• EDF Renewables
• EDP Renewables
• Foulston Siefkin
• Johnson Controls, Inc.
• Kansas Soybean Commission
• Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance
• SEVO Industrial Fire Protection
• Stagecoach Renewables
• Sunflower Electric Power Corporation
• Trane

For more information about the conference, please visit www.kansascommerce.gov/renewable-energy-conference.

If you are interested in attending the conference, online registration is open until September 28 for $125 or a discounted student rate of $60. You may register online here. Please note, if you require an invoice for registration, select that option at the bottom of the first page. The Hilton Garden Inn Manhattan has a reduced-rate, room block reserved for conference attendees. Contact the hotel online or by calling (785) 532-9116. The group code is KSDPTC.