IAEE 2026 Conference Program

The opening plenary will set the stage for the conference by addressing the overarching theme of the European energy trilemma. Europe’s energy policy must simultaneously advance climate neutrality, ensure security of supply, and maintain affordability for households and industry. Recent geopolitical developments, rising investment needs, and the acceleration of electrification have made these objectives more interconnected — and more difficult to balance.

This session will bring together high-level perspectives from energy policy, international institutions, and academia to discuss which trade-offs are most pressing and how Europe can design policy and market frameworks that support resilient, sustainable, and affordable energy systems.

Energy markets are increasingly shaped by geopolitical tensions, trade dependencies, sanctions, conflicts, and industrial policy. This session will examine how geopolitical developments affect energy prices, supply chains, infrastructure security, and long-term investment decisions.

Speakers will discuss how Europe can strengthen resilience through diversification, storage, demand flexibility, and critical infrastructure protection. The session will also address the role of regulation and market design in mitigating geopolitical risks for consumers, industry, and energy companies.

The transition to a climate-neutral energy and mobility system must remain socially inclusive and economically viable. This session will focus on how clean energy and mobility solutions can be scaled while keeping costs affordable for households, firms, and public budgets.

Key topics include targeted support schemes, investment-friendly policy design, clean mobility pathways, and the distributional impacts of the transition. The discussion will explore how affordability can be reconciled with decarbonization, innovation, and long-term system efficiency.

European industry faces the dual challenge of reducing carbon emissions while remaining globally competitive. This session will explore the most viable decarbonization pathways across sectors, including electrification, hydrogen, carbon capture, and circular economy approaches.

The discussion will focus on how policy can de-risk investment while preserving competitiveness. Topics include carbon pricing, the EU Emissions Trading System, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, contracts for difference, and the infrastructure and energy-price conditions required for low-carbon industrial production in Europe.

As renewable energy becomes the backbone of the European energy system, the meaning of security of supply is evolving. This session will examine how adequacy, flexibility, firm capacity, storage, interconnection, demand-side response, and critical inputs interact in a renewables-dominated system.

The session will discuss which portfolio of solutions is most robust under stress scenarios and how planning, permitting, regulation, and market incentives can be aligned to ensure reliability without excessive costs.

Digitalization and artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly important for the operation, planning, and decarbonization of energy systems. This session will explore where AI can deliver the greatest impact, including forecasting, system optimization, predictive maintenance, trading, customer solutions, and grid management.

The discussion will also address the data foundations required to scale AI applications across the energy value chain. Key questions include interoperability, data governance, cybersecurity, transparency, and accountability as AI becomes more system-critical.

High shares of renewable energy, increasing flexibility needs, and rising investment requirements are putting existing market designs under pressure. This session will discuss how electricity markets and regulation must evolve to incentivize flexibility, storage, demand response, dispatchable low-carbon technologies, and cross-border coordination.

The session will also address long-term contracting, power purchase agreements, contracts for difference, risk allocation, and regulatory reforms needed to unlock investment at scale while maintaining efficiency and affordability.

Electricity grids are a central enabler of Europe’s energy transition. Yet grid expansion and modernization face major challenges, including permitting, financing, supply chains, workforce constraints, and coordination across regions and borders.

This session will discuss how grid planning must evolve in response to electrification, distributed generation, offshore development, and cross-border balancing needs. It will also address which regulatory and market reforms can accelerate investment while maintaining affordability and reliability.

While electrification is central to decarbonization, molecules such as hydrogen, e-fuels, biomethane, ammonia, and other low-carbon gases are expected to play an important role in hard-to-electrify sectors. This session will examine where molecules provide “no-regrets” solutions and where direct electrification may remain preferable.

The discussion will cover market structures, certification schemes, guarantees of origin, standards, infrastructure development, imports, pipelines, storage, and the sustainability constraints associated with scaling molecule-based energy carriers.

The closing session will bring together key impressions from the conference and reflect on the main insights from the plenary and parallel sessions. It will highlight the most important takeaways for energy research, policy, regulation, and industry.

The session will also provide an outlook on the next IAEE European Conference in Spain and formally close the 14th IAEE European Conference in Munich.