eceee Summer Study 2026

🔋 “Efficiency: powering on!” at the eceee Summer Study 2026 and IREES was right in the middle of it

Under the theme “Efficiency: powering on!”, this year’s eceee Summer Study brought together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from around the world to discuss a question that could hardly be more relevant: How can energy efficiency be placed more firmly at the centre of climate action, competitiveness, energy security, and societal resilience?

For us at IREES GmbH, the Summer Study was a valuable opportunity to share our research, engage in inspiring discussions, connect with colleagues from all around the world, and gain new perspectives for our future work.

Our contributions included:

🔹 Robert Maertens, who presented a techno-economic assessment of green primary and secondary plastics production pathways, examining their economic viability, resource requirements, and potential contribution to a more sustainable and circular plastics industry.

🔹 Antonia Kranz, who shared research on heat cooperatives and explored the role that energy communities can play in advancing local heat planning and community-led heat provision.

🔹 Jan Kellershohn, who presented a district-level algorithmic clustering approach for developing regional heat transition strategies. Using the German state of Saarland as a case study, the presentation demonstrated how data-driven analyses can reveal regional differences and support tailored transformation pathways.

🔹 Jana Deurer Oppen, who presented key findings from the evaluation of Germany’s federal funding programmes for climate-friendly new construction (KFN), affordable climate-friendly new construction (KNN), and home ownership for families (WEF).

🔹 Heike Brugger, who served as Panel Leader for “Future and Innovative Policies”, facilitating discussions on the policy frameworks needed to support Europe’s energy transition in the years ahead.

🏆 A special highlight was Jan Kellershohn receiving the award for Best Presentation in his panel – congratulations on this well-deserved recognition!

A huge thanks to the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (eceee), the organizing team and presenters for creating such a unique event and to all participants for the inspiring conversations.

See you again in two years!

IREES – RESEARCH FOR FUTURE 🌍🍃