Professor Stephen Jarvis (Vice-Chancellor for Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Birmingham)

The opening plenary session of the conference was held on October 12th at the Bramall music building of the University of Birmingham. The opening session was chaired by Professor Stephen Jarvis, Vice-Chancellor for Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Professor Yulong Ding and Professor Martin Freer delivered opening speeches. Afterwards, Professor Nigel Brandon, Dean of Imperial College London, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Foreign academicians of National Academy of Engineering America, and Professor André Thess, Director of the Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), brought brilliant keynote reports to the participants. The invited reports were broadcast live as public lectures. Over 200 multidisciplinary experts from academia and industry all over the world participated this conference.

Opening plenary session of the conference

The theme of the conference is "Decarbonisation of our energy systems to achieve our global Net-Zero ambitions", which mainly discusses the research progress of energy storage technology and related fields. Over the three-day conference， researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government agencies and non-government organizations shared their work and build collaborations, to identify possible solutions for the key technological and policy challenges associated with energy storage.

The closing ceremony of the conference took place on 14th October at 13:30 (United Kingdom Standard Time). Professor Chris Llewellyn Smith (Sir), Fellow of the Royal Society from Oxford University, brought a specially invited keynote report to the participants at the closing ceremony. Professor Yulong Ding delivered a speech at the closing meeting. He said: "It was an honor to host the second World Energy Storage Conference at the University of Birmingham. The energy crisis is a colossal challenge, one that can only be addressed through national and international collaborations, like the ones formed at this conference over the past few days.” At the end of the conference, it was announced that the third WESC will be organized by National Renewable Energy Laboratory and it will be held in the United States of America.