15 January 2026

Nordhausen, 15 January 2026 - From 12 to 13 February 2026, the Institute for Renewable Energy Technology (in.RET) invites you to the 9th Regenerative Energy Technology Conference (RET.Con) at Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences. The conference is aimed at companies and research institutions in the field of renewable energies, which will present topics from their current research and development work and discuss them in a scientific context.

RET.Con Programme 2026 Download

RET.Con 2026 takes an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the complex challenges of decarbonisation. It is aimed specifically at companies and research and development institutions in the renewable energy sector. The focus is on presenting current research and development work and discussing it within a scientific framework. The conference combines technological aspects of energy generation with questions of system modelling and grid integration.
The opening session on 12 February will include a welcome address by the Thuringian Energy Minister Tilo Kummer. The keynote speech by Dr Maria Nuschke (TenneT) on „The Edison era in the transmission grid? A look at current developments in grid expansion to implement the energy transition“.

The scientific programme is divided into seven sessions covering the spectrum of modern energy systems:

• Energy system modelling: This year's focus is on analysing time series and integrating flexibility into energy system models.
• Building energy supply: The focus here is on control concepts and operating experience with the interaction of different components.
• Sector coupling: Strategies for integrating sector coupling technologies and wood waste into energy infrastructures will be discussed.
• Energy storage: The sessions will cover current developments in battery research, bidirectional charging processes and innovative measurement methods for ice storage systems.
• Heat transition in Thuringia: Regionally focused articles analyse the potential of energy-efficient building refurbishment and local heat demand profiles.

Networking with the open source community

The conference will be flanked by the oemof user meeting. oemof (Open Energy Modelling Framework) is a modular open source software environment for modelling and optimising energy systems. The association behind it promotes transparency and openness in energy science (Open Science). The meeting is dedicated to the further technical development of the framework through tutorials and user presentations.
There will be reciprocal participation in the presentations at both events. This dovetailing enables a direct exchange between the developers of open source modelling tools and users from the energy industry.

Registration and participation

Interested subject representatives can register until 6 February 2026 at register. In addition to the scientific programme, the conference fee of €200 also includes the conference dinner on 12 February, which offers space for further networking. Further information on the conference can be found at  https://www.hs-nordhausen.de/forschung/inret/ret-con/