Date, time and place: Thursday 9 April, 2026. From 13.30 CET
How to join? Sign up on Google Forms
4A4PEDs Driving Positive Energy Districts Forward with Knowledge Exchange
The 4A4PEDs Knowledge Exchange Online Event brings together decision-makers, practitioners, researchers, and industry representatives from local, regional and transnational levels across Europe.
The event aims for knowledge exchange of experiences, identifying barriers, and chart collaborative paths towards the wider implementation of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs).
To overcome identified barriers or challenges, the transnational knowledge exchange event aims to identify best practices as well as provide leverage for strategies for cities to access support and funding for local PEDs.
Key Notes from Finland
Presenter names and links to presentation materials:
- Joni Mäkinen – City of Espoo, analysis of Challenges and Opportunities
- Mia Ala-Juusela – First results from RESPED project
- Tapio Toivanen – Path to sustainability in built environments
- Petri Koivula – Case Higher Education and PEDs
After keynotes we have Q&A, addressing the current PED uncertainties from Availability, Accessibility, Affordability and Alliance perspectives.
Joni Mäkinen
Joni works as an energy specialist within City of Espoo’s strategic development and knowledge management department, under the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development. Espoo is the second largest city in Finland, with 325 000 residents, located next to the capital of Helsinki. Espoo has participated in different PED-themed research and innovation projects, including 4A4PEDS and the EU Horizon project SPARCS, developing PED demonstration blocks together with local and international partners.
Mia Ala-Juusela
Mia has 25+ years of research experience at VTT, regarding energy efficient buildings, renewable energy in buildings and the optimal connection of demand and supply of energy in the buildings, lately mostly on district scale. The user perspective is often in a central role in her studies.
Nowadays she most often works in EU-projects, in a leading role as Coordinator or WP Leader. Her Doctoral Thesis, which she defended in beginning of 2023 is about Three dimensions on the road to feasible energy positive neighbourhoods: stakeholder, time frame, physical scale. In 2024 and 2025 she gave a Solar energy course in Oulu University of Applied Sciences.
Tapio Toivanen
Eeneman helps building owners on their path to sustainability in built environment by retrofitting buildings with AI/MR based BEE-Solution.
BEE Solution can deliver 10-15% energy savings in buildings.
Eeneman contribution to PED's contains elements like:
- optimizing energy consumption / reducing consumption by 10-15%
- shifting consumption to renewables when e.g. wind energy supply is high
- shifting consumption to low price hours/quarters
- shifting consumption from high consumption hours
BEE-Solution supports visualisation / tracking of indoor conditions and energy consumption.
Petri Koivula
PEDs matter now because energy has become a strategic urban capability, not just a climate target, and only district-scale solutions can deliver resilience, affordability, and sovereignty at the same time.
Future cities with successful PEDs are resilient, affordable, and climate-positive urban systems where energy is locally produced, intelligently shared, and continuously optimized at district scale.
