Past events
20.11.2024
Event: PATHFNDR Conference – Energy Week 2024
On Thursday, 7 November 2024, PATHFNDR held its first conference under the theme “The Power Shift: will flexibility and sector coupling lead the way?” The conference was part of the Energy Week at ETH Zurich.
The conference delved into the future of energy systems while achieving net-zero GHG emission goals and focused on the role of flexibility and sector coupling. Among the topics were possible future energy scenarios and their pathways, the impact of technologies and infrastructures as well as the role of policies and business strategies to accelerate the energy transition.
More information (presentations and posters) are available under conference.
Thank you to all participants for their active participation and exchange with us!
18.09.2024
Event: The annual PATHFNDR workshop @ ETH Zurich
On Tuesday, 17 September 2024, around 40 participants from research and industry discussed the role of different technologies and infrastructures to promote flexibility and sector coupling in the Swiss energy system.
The goal of the workshop was to identify technical measures, policy requirements and business strategies needed to advance and adopt these technologies. The presentations and discussions build the foundation of the fourth synthesis report.
Thank you to all participants for their active participation and exchange with us!
06.09.2024
Event: SWEET conference 2024
On Wednesday, 4 September 2024, the SFOE held its 3rd SWEET conference. The SWEET consortium showcased key research highlights. Christian Schaffner presented findings from the PATHFNDR synthesis reports, focusing on energy scenarios, as well as flexibility from buildings and electro-mobility. Furthermore, there was a panel discussion on communication of research results to business and politics. The conference was attended by researchers and representatives from industry, associations, cantons, cities, municipalities and the federal government.
More information and documents (presentations and posters) are available on the SWEET programme website.
03.06.2024
Event: Site visit 2024 @ HSLU
On Wednesday, 15 May 2024, the PATHFNDR executive board presented to the SFOE and SWEET monitoring panel results of the last three years and the outlook for the upcoming year. The discussion focussed on the research synthesis on the energy scenarios and their impact on flexibility at national level. In addition, the research synthesis on the provision of flexibility through e-mobility and buildings at national to local scale was discussed.
Thank you to the monitoring panel and SWEET office for their valuable feedback! A big thank you also to HSLU for hosting the meeting!
01.02.2024
Event: PATHFNDR dissemination workshop @ ETH Zurich
On 31 January 2024, researchers from the PATHFNDR consortium participated at the dissemination workshop, where energy scenarios results and insights on sector coupling were presented. These results will be published in the second PATHFNDR synthesis report and line-up the third synthesis report on flexibility provision from electromobility and buildings.
More information about the synthesis reports is available on Publications.
11.12.2023
Event: Energy Week 2023 @ ETH
From 04-08 December 2023, the Energy Science Center (ESC) held its annual energy conference, the “Energy Week @ ETH”. The event series took place at ETH Zurich and online and offered a wide range of activities: a symposium, an energy sprint (for students), focus dialogues, “next generation university” side event and an energy data summit.
More information about the Energy Week @ ETH is available on:
25.10.2023
Event: Advisory board meeting 2023
On Tuesday, 24 October 2023, the PATHFNDR executive board held a hybrid meeting with its advisory board. The goal of the meeting was to get feedback from the advisory board on the first results of PATHFNDR. The next meeting will be held in 2024.
Thank you to the advisory board for their insightful and valuable advice!
15.09.2023
Event: The annual PATHFNDR workshop @ Siemens
On 12-13 September 2023, around 60 participants from research, industry, and government discussed PATHFNDR’s contribution to the energy transition in Switzerland.
At the workshop PATHFNDR scenarios and preliminary results were presented, which build the foundation of the second synthesis report. Also industry partners (Siemens, BKW, Energie 360° and EBP Schweiz) pitched their work. In a World Café participants discussed how results from PATHFNDR can contribute to specific needs in the industry. The workshop ended with guided tours at Siemens.
Thank you to all participants for their active participation and exchange with us! A big thank you also to Siemens for hosting the workshop!
07.09.2023
Event: SWEET conference 2023
On Wednesday, 6 September 2023, the SFOE held its 2nd SWEET conference. The SWEET consortia presented preliminary results and an outlook for the coming year. Prof. André Bardow showed the status of the PATHFNDR machine. Furthermore, there were speeches and a panel discussion on the role of digital energy data in SWEET. The conference was attended by researchers and representatives from industry, associations, cantons, cities, municipalities and the federal government.
More information and documents (presentations and posters) are available on: https://www.bfe.admin.ch/bfe/en/home/research-and-cleantech/funding-program-sweet/news/sweet-konferenz.html
18.05.2023
Event: Site visit 2023 @ PSI
On Wednesday, 17 May 2023, the PATHFNDR executive board presented to the SWEET review panel results of the last two years and the outlook for the coming year. The discussion focused on how different research work of the PATHFNDR machine that enable flexibility and sector coupling are coming together. The meeting ended with a tour of the ESI demonstrator at PSI.
Thank you to the review panel and SWEET office for their valuable feedback! A big thank you also to PSI for hosting the meeting!
18.01.2023
Event: SWEET CROSS to Co-evolution
On 18 January 2023, PATHFNDR presented first results of the future energy scenarios at the CROSS scientific networking conference in Bern. The scenario results presented by Francesco Sanvito and Jared Garrison were compared within the SWEET consortia.
More information about the conference is available on:
12.12.2022
Event: Energy Week 2022 @ ETH
From 05-11 December 2022, the Energy Science Center (ESC) held its annual energy conference, the “Energy Week @ ETH”. The event series took place at ETH Zurich and online and offered a wide range of activities: a symposium, an energy sprint (for students), focus dialogues and a science policy panel. Additionally, for the first time, the Energy Week @ ETH was accompanied by a public energy exhibition. In a widespread and walkable “energy playing field”, the exhibition showcased the current and a vision of a future energy system and therefore allowed the visitors to understand the many challenges and opportunities.
More information about the Energy Week @ ETH is available on:
22.09.2022
Event: Energy Data Hackdays 2022
On 16-17 September 2022, PATHFNDR presented a challenge at the Energy Data Hackdays at the Technopark Aargau in Brugg. The challenge was to develop a decision-making tool for policy-makers to explore and compare multiple energy scenarios. The result is the Energy Explorer, an open source app developed by Stephane Bisinger, Bill Zollinger, Tristan Gollmart and Robert Stanton.
A big thank you to the hacking team for creating the Energy Explorer!
More information about the Energy Explorer is available on:
- App: https://energy-explorer.netlify.app/
- GitHub: https://github.com/EnergyExplorer/energy_explorer
- Challenge description: https://hack.opendata.ch/project/846
21.09.2022
Event: The annual PATHFNDR workshop @ ewb
On 14-15 September 2022, the PATHFNDR research team, industry partners, and policy-makers discussed the challenges and opportunities of four topics: energy independence, hydrogen, system flexibility, and sector coupling.
- Programme flyer (PDF, 2 MB)
- Presentations (PDF, 12.8 MB)
- Posters (PDF, 21.5 MB)
05.09.2022
Event: Site visit 2022 @ Empa
On Thursday, 1 September 2022, the PATHFNDR executive board presented to the review panel the current project status after one year of work and the outlook for the coming year. The discussion focused on energy scenarios, technologies, business strategies, and policies needed to enable flexibility and sector integration. The meeting ended with a tour of the NEST, move and Ehub demonstrators at Empa.
Thank you to the review panel and SWEET office for their valuable feedback! A big thank you also to Empa for hosting the meeting!
23.06.2022
Event: Team workshop #2
On Tuesday, 21 June 2022, the PATHFNDR team held its 2nd workshop of the year. The team developed possible scenarios, and defined pilot and demonstration projects. The next workshop will be held together with industry partners, and policy-makers in the fall of 2022.
17.06.2022
Event: SWEET conference 2022
On Wednesday, 15 June 2022, the SFOE held its 1st SWEET conference. The SWEET consortia presented preliminary results and an outlook for the coming year. In addition, a panel discussion addressed the need for transdisciplinary collaboration in energy research. The conference was attended by researchers and representatives from industry, associations, cantons, cities, municipalities and the federal government.
More information and documents (presentations and posters) are available on: https://www.bfe.admin.ch/bfe/en/home/research-and-cleantech/funding-program-sweet/news/sweet-konferenz.html
18.05.2022
Event: Advisory board meeting 2022
On Monday, 16 May 2022, the PATHFNDR executive board held a hybrid meeting with its advisory board. The goal of the meeting was to align project objectives with the expectations of the advisory board. The next meeting will be held in 2023.
Thank you to the advisory board for their insightful and valuable advice!
24.01.2022
Event: Team workshop #1
On Monday, 24 January 2022, the PATHFNDR team held its 1st workshop of the year. The team brainstormed ideas about scenario dimensions and assumptions, and identified potential technologies from various energy sectors. The next team-wide workshop will be held in the summer of 2022.
The PATHFNDR team wishes impactful results and collaborative research for 2022!
06.12.2021
Event: Energy Week 2021 @ ETH Zurich
The Energy Week 2021 was held at ETH Zurich from 30 November to 3 December 2021. The event offered a symposium discussing energy scenarios and technologies as well as focus dialogues about seasonal energy storage, sector coupling, hydrogen as energy storage, and automation of power grids.
The event was organised by the Energy Science Center of the ETH Zurich. The PATHFNDR team had an active role in the symposium and focus dialogues. More information about the event is available on: https://esc.ethz.ch/events/energy-week-2021.html
28.09.2021
Event: ReMaP current status and outlook @ PSI
01.06.2021
Event: PATHFNDR kick-off
On Monday, 31 May 2021, the PATHFNDR project successfully kicked-off. Approximately 60 participants from the public and private sectors attended the virtual event. The project team presented the project objectives, expected outcomes and the involved stakeholders.
- Presentation (PDF, 6.1 MB)