Founded in 1923, the World Energy Council is the only truly global and inclusive forum for thought-leadership and tangible engagement committed to our sustainable energy future.
Our network of 94 national committees represents over 3000 member organizations including governments, industry and expert institutions. Our mission is to promote the sustainable supply and use of energy for the greatest benefit of all. The World Energy Congress is the world’s premier energy gathering.
<WEC HISTORICAL FACTS>
The World Energy Council (WEC) was founded in 1923 by Daniel Dunlop, a visionary in the British electricity industry. He decided to bring together leading energy experts for a “World Power Conference” (later renamed the World Energy Congress) and he worked with countries across the globe, bringing 1,700 delegates from 40 countries together to London in 1924. The conference was so successful that a permanent organization was established.
In 1929, the World Power Conference produced its first publication: “Power Resources of the World – Potential and Developed”. This was the first in a continuing series of energy resource publications, now known as the WEC’s “Survey of Energy Resources”. The Survey is a flagship publication of WEC and is unique in that no other organization compiles such wide‐ranging information on a regular and consistent basis. This highly regarded publication is an essential tool for governments, industry, investors, NGOs and academia.
At the Berlin Congress in 1930, the third World Power Conference, speeches were given by Albert Einstein and Sir Arthur Eddington, a distinguished astrophysicist who first explained Einstein’s theory of relativity in English and led the first experiment to prove it was correct. Eddington gave an address in which he said that, in the future, “subatomic energy would provide the plain diet for engines previously pampered with delicacies like coal and oil”. It would take another decade before the key to atomic power was discovered.
The World Energy Congress was given the nickname of the “Energy Olympics” by the mayor of Munich when the German city played host to the Congress in 1980. He referred to the competition among nations for energy resources, and the fact that success or failure was seen by many governments in terms of national survival – similar to the success or failure of athletes at the Olympic Games.
Source: World energy
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