22 Jun 2026 — A training webinar shares lessons learnt from POCITYF Fellow Cities through their replication process to adapt Lighthouse Cities solutions to local energy plans
Cities do not need to start from scratch when planning positive energy districts. Lighthouse cities examples can offer valuable lessons, but replication is not a copy-and-paste process: it means understanding what worked, what can be adapted, and which tools and decisions are needed to shape measures that fit each city’s buildings, plans, budgets and communities.
This is the practical focus of the POCITYF training webinar Cities learning from cities – Exploring practical pathways for replication through the experience of POCITYF Fellow Cities, organised as part of the European Sustainable Energy Days 2026 and now available as a recording. The session shows how replication becomes useful when cities make selective choices, work with accessible tools and connect technical analysis with local decision-making.
One of the strongest lessons comes from the POCITYF replication methodology presented by Elena Conte, from Energy@Work. Fellow Cities were encouraged to narrow down the list of possible measures and focus on those that are most feasible, urgent and aligned with their needs. Starting from a limited number of buildings, especially municipally owned ones, can make data collection easier and help cities move towards more robust feasibility studies. The webinar also shows how knowledge transfer can become a practical resource for municipalities. Workshops, technical fact sheets, digital tools, templates and regular coordination supported Fellow Cities in understanding which technologies could be relevant for them and under which conditions. This helped turn the experience of Lighthouse Cities into material that other cities could actually use.
The technical presentations by Vasilis Sougakis and Eleni Tsompanidou, from CERTH, added another layer to the discussion. Through the case of Ioannina, they showed how building-level and district-level analyses can help assess energy upgrades, compare renovation scenarios, estimate emissions savings and explore the role of e-mobility, battery storage and vehicle-to-grid charging in local energy management. A final municipal perspective was brought by Konstantinos Mavropanos, who shared Ioannina’s experience as a POCITYF Fellow City. His contribution highlighted both the potential and the challenges of moving from analysis to implementation, including funding needs, regulatory barriers, technical complexity, stakeholder engagement and internal capacity.
For cities working on climate-neutral urban transformation, this training webinar brings together real replication experience and practical insights from POCITYF Fellow Cities. Learn with us how to ask the right questions before choosing what to replicate, where to start, and how to adapt lessons learnt to your own urban context.
