GLOBAL ATYRAU OIL&GAS
Shell at Expo-2017: Looking at Tomorrow’s Energy Today
From June through September this year, Astana will become an open public stage for the demonstration of the world technological achievements and a platform for the discussion of the energy agenda for the Planet’s future.
From 10 June through 10 September Astana will host EXPO-2017, an international exhibition on the theme of “Future Energy”. The event will offer the latest methodologies and technologies for energy production, as well as looking to the future and the importance of sustainable development as a prerequisite for success. “EXPO-2017” will highlight the importance of using energy resources in a responsible and rational way.
There is a strong possibility that by the end of the century, the global population could be as high as 10 billion people. That could be an increase of almost 2.5 billion from now. If energy demand is great today, imagine what it will be in the future. This poses a real conundrum - in addition to finding enough energy to meet these growing demands, the need to address stresses on the environment – especially climate change – has never been more critical.
The big challenge for energy companies is how to provide more energy while at the same time significantly reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Shell has long recognized both the importance of climate change and the critical role energy must play in enabling an improved quality of life for both current and future generations. As part of the company’s commitment to energy transition they are proud to be a global sponsor of Kazakhstan’s EXPO-2017 ‘Future Energy’ event.
Global Partnership
Shell is proud to be a global partner in this important event, the largest in the history of Kazakhstan and the one of the most significant exhibitions in the world energy industry in 2017. Shell, as a Global Partner of EXPO-2017, is the only global company which will have a standalone pavilion at EXPO-2017.
Looking at tomorrow’s energy today
The world today is exciting, dynamic and fast moving. How can the world’s energy systems evolve from now, to achieve a better life for all with a healthy planet?
Shell believes that only together, innovating with optimism and ingenuity, through collaboration between all players in society, we can “Make the Future” today. As part of this the Shell pavilion will provide the opportunity to explore the theme of future energy through play in the form that is easily understood by the younger generation. It will help them to understand challenges the world faces in the 21st century, and about their place in this dynamically changing world. This will be achieved through a unique experience called ‘Shell Energy Lab’.
Shell Energy Lab is an interactive adventure, combining education and entertainment taking visitors of all ages on a journey of future energy, technology and mobility. It is intended to provide hands on experience to create greater awareness of energy and its challenges, stimulate creative thinking and innovation among participants to meet those challenges.
Shell Energy Lab has been exhibited across the world – in Asia, America and Europe as part of the well-known global Shell Eco-Marathon event, the competition that puts the world’s talented young students in an epic engineering ‘head to head’ challenge to build the most energy efficient car, and by doing so perhaps create a blueprint for future transportation technology. The team of Nazarbayev University students with the support of Shell will become the first team from Kazakhstan that will take part in Shell Eco-Marathon in Singapore next year.
Learn through play
The pavilion of the Shell Energy Lab will include several interactive exhibits that embrace the proven concept of “learn through play” to inspire curiosity, impart knowledge and inspire for inventions and innovations.
At the entrance to the pavilion each participant will receive a personalized RFID card which is used for interaction with exhibits. The visitors will start their journey from the main hall of the pavilion where in interactive format using special visual effects, infographics based on NASA scientific data and satellite data the learning materials will be projected on the big sphere helping explore the essence of energy challenges humankind is trying to meet.
The next section in the pavilion is called the Energy mix represented by a series of 6 energy source installations – gas, wind, coal, nuclear, wave and solar. Each source states its current proportion in the energy mix as well as the shifts that is required to achieve net zero emissions. The visitors are interacting with the exhibits as a game learning basic principles of energy formation.
One of five people around the world live without access to energy at all. That is why Shell supports bright energy ideas that power human progress. One of such examples is Soccket Football game. The soccket ball contains a pioneering energy generator placed inside the ball which generates power as it is played with, and 30 minutes of play can generate enough energy to power a light for up to three hours. In this section of the pavilion the visitors charge up the ball by taking shots at target the gates and scoring as many points as possible and creating as much power as possible.
The next area in the visitors’ journey offers guests the chance to experience bright energy ideas in action first hand. With this in mind Shell has brought the concept of turbine technology to life in a unique way. Visitors are invited to create energy by running in so called Zorbes (Energy Generators) the turbines then turn guests’ kinetic energy into electricity – how much electricity they create depend on how much effort they put in it.
The everyday choices we make affect how much energy, food and water we will have in the future. The final piece of the Pavilion is Planet You and this gives visitors their very own planet. They will have been using the visitors pass to answer all ten ‘Planet You’ questions as they moved around the exhibition. Now they get to find out what kind of planet their choices have made. ‘Planet You’ puts the ball firmly back in the visitors court and reminds them that to achieve a cleaner, better and brighter future, we all have to work together.
After visiting the Shell pavilion, the young visitors will certainly pause to think about their future, the future of their country and the world and the personal contribution to shaping a better Planet.
New energy, new reality
In the new reality, renewable sources of energy will become an increasingly more important part of the energy strategy of major oil and gas companies world-wide.
Although we foresee the need for fossil fuels for some time to come, Shell’s new energies business is actively exploring opportunities where the commercial value is clear.
One of the key trends of this segment is the wind energy. There are few locations in the world where this source is quite competitive, but the scale of production of this energy type is quite low. To increase the share of wind energy in the overall energy balance the work should be led in several directions: enhancing technology and improving economic indices of similar projects. In the end of last year Shell won the bid for construction of the wind energy generation farm complex with the capacity of 700 MW in Borsele in the Netherlands. Shell also has the wind park in the United States.
Biofuel is one of even cleaner types of energy. Thus, Shell is the largest producer of products made of biofuels in Brazil within the framework Raizen Joint Venture.
Looking forward, Shell is planning to increase its investment to the renewable energy. To achieve the set goals to develop the necessary clean energy to meet growing demands the company will rely on close cooperation between governments, the energy industry and our partners.