CIC energiGUNE, a leading Basque research center in electrochemical energy storage and conversion and thermal energy storage and conversion, will once again bring together researchers, industry professionals and institutional leaders from all over the world in Vitoria-Gasteiz for the “Power Our Future” Congress organized every two years by the Basque center to analyze the latest advances and trends in battery and capacitor technologies. The event will take place between July 8 and 11 at the Palacio Europa and will be attended by more than a hundred participants from 12 different countries.
As in previous editions, the Chairman of “Power Our Future” will be Professor Michel Armand, honorary scientific director of the electrochemistry area of CIC energiGUNE and considered the most important researcher in the Basque Country at all levels, as well as the number 1 scientist in Spain in the field of Energy according to the prestigious annual ranking of Stanford University.
“The development of electrochemical energy storage technologies is crucial to build a sustainable energy future, and in ”Power Our Future“ we will have a very close and accurate vision of what we can expect in the short and medium term,” said Montse Casas-Cabanas, Scientific Director of the Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion Area of CIC energiGUNE and Vice President of the Congress.
In this sense, the sixth edition of “Power Our Future” aims to consolidate itself as the reference platform for all the agents involved in the development of energy storage technologies to share the latest research advances, the most innovative solutions and emerging trends in battery and capacitor technologies.
To this end, it will be attended by leading experts and speakers from around the world, such as Antoni Forner Cuenca, chemical engineer and senior researcher at the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) who has received the Princess of Girona Award for Research 2025 “for his contributions to the development of new energy storage and conversion systems and, in particular, to the development of sustainable porous electrodes for large-scale storage batteries”.
Other speakers include Maria Forsyth (Deakin University); Nuria Lopez (Institut Catalá d´Investigació Quimica ICIQ); Dominic Bresser (Universität Ulm & Karlsruher Institut für Technologie); Ivana Hasa (University of Warwick); Nuria García-Araez (University of Southampton); Heng Zhang (Huazhong University of Science and Technology); Sara Drvarič Talian (Kemijski inštitut - National Institute of Chemistry); Fréderic Maillard (Université Grenoble Alpes); Anja Bielefeld (Justus-Liebig University Giessen); Alexander Shaplov (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology) and Claudio Cazorla (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)..
The “Power Our Future” program will begin on Tuesday, July 8 with the official opening ceremony. The event has the institutional support of both the Basque Government and the Provincial Council of Alava and the City Council of Vitoria - Gasteiz. Also, this year will have prestigious sponsors such as the scientific equipment manufacturer BRUKER BIOSPIN, the leader in electrochemical instrumentation BIOLOGIC or the scientific publisher WILEY.
Within the program of sessions, which can be consulted on the event´s website, “Power Our Future” has once again included a session with a strong industrial character. Thus, on Thursday July 10, international experts from various sectors will analyze the state of battery research around a panel discussion moderated by Raquel Ferret, Director of Business Development at CIC energiGUNE. Representatives from leading companies such as VDI, DNV, Arkema, Saft, Suez and Ingeteam will attend the session.
Specifically, the session will focus on three key topics: technological challenges in battery development; opportunities and barriers in the commercial implementation of storage solutions; and the role of public policies and cross-sector collaboration to accelerate the energy transition. CIC energiGUNE highlights the interest of this session for the local industry in order to position itself in a key market for the future, so it makes a special call to be present at the event.
About CIC energiGUNE
CIC energiGUNE is a research center of reference both in electrochemical energy storage (batteries and capacitors) as well as in thermal energy storage and conversion, in addition to hydrogen technologies. In its 14 years of existence, CIC energiGUNE has positioned itself as one of the primary international centers of reference in the field of solid-state batteries and has become the great reference in the South of Europe in energy storage. It is also part of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance-BRTA.
Since its beginning in 2011, CIC energiGUNE has participated in 303 projects of R&D, among which more than 40 are European, counts with nearly 1,000 scientific publications and has developed more than a hundred projects in collaboration with the industry contributing to increasing the competitiveness of its products and services. In order to do this, CIC energiGUNE counts with unique facilities among which stand out the prototyping and testing infrastructures for electrochemical storage (including solid-state batteries for the automotive industry) and thermal storage.
