Green Energy Lab as a facilitator of European cooperation

Together with the Province of Burgenland, we contributed to the active discourse at the European Week of Cities and Regions with our Participatory Lab, which took place online on October 21, 2020. We entered into a dialogue with European participants who contributed their perspective on our activities along the innovation chain.

After the opening by Member of the Provincial Government of Burgenland Heinrich Dorner and Raphaela Reinfeld, chairwoman of Green Energy Lab, we explored three topics in three different break-out rooms.

Susanne Supper, Cluster Manager of Green Energy Lab, used the participatory format to obtain the European perspective on innovative future trends using our innovation maps. The focus here was on the question: what will the European energy system of the future look like and which new players will emerge?

Markus Puchegger, Researcher at Forschung Burgenland, brought his point of view as a project lead and presented the Green Energy Lab projects Heat Water Storage Pooling and Hybrid DH Demo. A lively exchange arose around the question of how local projects can contribute to ambitious European goals.

Birte Holste Jørgensen, Senior Researcher at the Technical University of Denmark and member of the Stakeholder Circle of the Green Energy Lab mainly dealt with the future of our European (virtual) cooperation. Best case examples of the cooperation were discussed with the participants.

We would like to thank the organizing team of the European Week of Cities and Regions and the international participants for this inspiring session and we look forward to continuing the course towards enhanced European cooperation. Many barriers have been lifted through virtual collaboration. We will use this opportunity to continue to position ourselves as a bridge between national and European cooperation.