2025 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry

UNC Charlotte Marriott Hotel and Conference Center

THEME: INDUSTRIAL COMPETITIVENESS, DECARBONIZATION, AND THE ENERGY TRANSITION

The industrial sector accounts for one third of the U.S. primary energy use, so the energy transition presents enormous opportunities and risks for this sector. Industrial competitiveness is going to depend on continued investments in innovation, efficiency, and decarbonization.

Research and development have always been a national strength. The transition also requires innovation in business models across the energy spectrum.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab estimates that only 50% of industrial energy is used productively – leading to an enormous waste of resources. Cost reduction through efficiency is a proven pathway to profitability.
Our trading partners are creating low-carbon standards, while continuing their own journeys of electrification combined with reductions in embodied carbon.

How do you take advantage of the opportunity and minimize the risk? How does your network support you? The 2025 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Industry brings together professionals from around the globe to Charlotte, North Carolina – ground zero for recent industrial investment, accompanied by a statewide commitment to carbon neutrality in the electricity sector by the year 2050. We will look at policies, funding, operations, and technology to sustain industrial competitiveness, for individual firms and the sector at large. We’ll ask how public-private partnerships can act now to develop the workforce we need for success. We’ll compare national and state policy to look for immediate advantage and long-term leverage.

You’ll leave the Summer Study with an expanded network and an action plan to meet your goals.

Panels

Panel 1: Grids, Pipes, and Funding (Includes utility programs, electricity adequacy, rates and bills, federal & state funding, equity)
Panel 2: Technology and Operations (Includes investments to reduce energy / carbon waste, grid-edge technology, smart manufacturing)

Panel 3: Industrial Leadership (Includes management practices, transformative change, workforce development, community engagement)
Panel 4: Networks, Value Chains, and Scopes (Includes financing innovations, innovations in price signals, labeling embodied carbon, generating demand for low-carbon goods, working with suppliers, linking carbon reporting and EE reporting)

Participants: Corporate leaders, energy managers and government relations professionals; equipment manufacturers and engineering services providers; labor representatives; energy efficiency program administrators, evaluators, and implementors; public utility commission and consumer counselor staff members; professionals in the utility sector with responsibilities for efficiency programs, resource planning, regulatory compliance and government relations; energy efficiency solution providers; federal and state energy and economic development officials; energy and sustainability management firms; and energy efficiency, clean energy and equity advocacy organizations.

To view a list of the 2023 participating organizations, click here.