Smart Microgrids are Happening! Updates on Energy Net from Sweden and Possibilities for NY
Wed, Sep 23, 2026
4:15 PM–6:15 PM
Skylight Room (9100), CUNY Graduate Center. Free and open to the public. Register to attend.
As part of NYC Climate Week 2026, please join us for two panel discussions updating the progress of the Energy Net model of neighborhood level distributed energy and building management launched last year by Swedish innovator Jonas Birgersson and his firm Via Europa. The first panel will give updates from the operations in Lund, Sweden and talk about other projects happening in Europe. The second panel will discuss Energy Net’s possibilities in NY amidst rising energy costs, resilience challenges and efforts to comply with Local Law 97 and related climate laws especially at the neighborhood and campus level.
Going beyond traditional microgrids, the Energy Net model is an open standard system that enables intelligent energy sharing so that these smart microgrids can communicate, cooperate, and transact energy within and between themselves, while also interacting with the traditional grid. This creates the foundation for a truly interoperable, global energy network that is not vulnerable to current grid blackouts and brownouts. Like the Internet’s open protocols, Energy Net enables a new model of resilient, democratic energy system that can route around outages or damaged infrastructure, and further promote and proliferate building decarbonization and grid-responsive buildings and reduce energy use, enabling more affordable pricing and promoting local cooperation and control. For more info on the model, go to their website here.
Panel Discussion One: “EnergyNet: It’s Happening in Sweden and in the European Union”
Moderator: Michael Menser (Brooklyn College/CUNY)
Speakers:
Jonas Birgersson, “EnergyNet Overview and Sweden/EU Update”
Linda Egin, “EnergyNet development and implementation in Lund, Sweden”
Max Collins, “Visual Simulation of Lund EnergyNet development”
Marc Weiss, “Energy Valley: Global Hub of Electrification in southern Sweden and eastern Denmark”
Henrik Ny, “EnergyNet and Extreme Energy Efficiency at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden”
Panel Discussion Two: “EnergyNet: Let’s Bring it to New York”
Moderator: Jonas Birgersson, Founder and Chairman, ViaEuropa; Chairman, EnergyNet Task Force (Lund, Sweden)
Speakers:
Michael Menser, “EnergyNet and Decarbonization Plans at Brooklyn College and other CUNY campuses”
Marc Weiss, “Secure and Affordable Energy for Rockaway (SAER)”
Max Collins, “Visual Simulation of the Rockaway SAER strategy”
This event is co-hosted and sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and the Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD Program at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Related Events
Panel Discussion
Low Fixed-Cost Green Energy for All: from Sweden to the US
