Conference Overview

What to Expect at IDEA2026

The IDEA Educational Experience

The IDEA Educational Program is widely recognized for its exceptional quality, bringing together leading voices from around the globe to share best practices, innovative solutions, and visionary perspectives on the future of district energy. With a structure designed to deliver both breadth and depth, the program spans multiple tracks that address the most pressing issues facing our industry today—from decarbonization strategies and thermal energy networks to cutting-edge technologies like data-center heat recovery, hydrogen, and microgrids. Each track is carefully curated to ensure that participants gain practical insights and actionable knowledge that can be applied to their organizations and communities.

What sets the program apart is the diversity and caliber of its contributors. With more than 100 speakers from across sectors, disciplines, and continents, IDEA provides a platform for true knowledge exchange between utilities, campuses, policymakers, engineers, and technology innovators. This convergence of expertise ensures that every session—whether a keynote, panel, podium presentation, or poster—offers fresh perspectives and real-world examples. By weaving together global experience with local application, the IDEA Educational Program delivers an unparalleled opportunity to learn, connect, and collaborate at the highest level.

Pre-Conference Workshops

IDEA is offerings two full-day, deep-dive workshops, each focused on a single topic. These workshops bring together experts from across the industry and provide ample opportunity for meaningful dialogue and discussion.

District Energy and Data Centers Workshop

Tuesday, June 23 8:00 am – 3:00 pm

Data centers are exploding in scale, reshaping energy demand and pushing electric grids to their limits. This workshop explores the growing intersection between district energy systems and data centers, highlighting how waste heat recovery, thermal networks, and strategic infrastructure planning can turn rising digital demand into an energy asset. Through case studies, policy insights, and implementation strategies, participants will learn how to reduce load growth, improve system efficiency, and unlock new value streams by integrating data centers into district energy systems.

TENs Market Development Workshop

Tuesday, June 23, 2026, 8:00 am – 3:00 pm

Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) are rapidly emerging as one of the most scalable, resilient, and community-beneficial pathways for district decarbonization. This interactive workshop explores how Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) are being deployed by a diverse set of actors—municipalities, private developers, utilities, and public-interest organizations—to meet a wide range of objectives, from decarbonization and resilience to economic development and energy affordability. The workshop begins with a foundational overview of TENs and heat planning, then examines how different stakeholders are approaching system design, ownership, and implementation. Through a series of moderated discussions, participants will gain insight into the unique drivers, challenges, and opportunities shaping both new network development and the transformation of existing systems.

IDEA2026 Block Program

The official IDEA2026 program will not be published until early 2026, but you can get an idea for all that we have to offer through our block program. IDEA always looks for new and inventive ways to add valuable content to its program - stay connected as the program continues to evolve.