Staging area 1
This staging area is intended for potential contributors. Please feel free to edit and update the description of your intended in person contribution as your ideas evolve. Some of the entries listed here may still be at an early stage of development. Not all suggestions will necessarily be selected or developed into lightning talks or presentations.
The deadline for submitting your potential contribution is May 1st 2026. After this deadline passes, the organizing group will screen the suggestions and develop the final program.
This is a wikipost that anyone registered with the forum can edit. You are encouraged to add your potential contributions directly here therefore. The order given is chronological downwards.
Note also that the topics and postings on this forum related to this event will be reorganized as the content builds. So just be aware that some URLs will break going forward. But the cape-town-workshop-2026 tag will persist.
Lightning talks:
Each lightening talk consists of a 6 minutes presentation followed by 4 minutes of Q&A. Profile your favorite project, tool, data, research findings, etc
When adding your lightening talk contribution, it should look something similiar to the following example post
Example
title : Using a global energy system model for a detailed country study
presenter : Martha Frysztacki (Open Energy Transition)
description : This presentation introduces a case study applying PyPSA-Earth for an energy transition study in Kazakhstan. We will show how we tailored a global open energy system model with high spatial and temporal resolution data to the specific country’s requirements. The novel approach avoids the time-consuming creation of models for every country and fosters collaboration, addressing the challenges of the energy transition together. Extended from this paper in Applied Energy .
code repository : GitHub - pypsa-meets-earth/pypsa-earth: PyPSA-Earth: A flexible Python-based open optimisation model to study energy system futures around the world. · GitHub
literature : Based on “PyPSA-Earth. A new global open energy system optimization model demonstrated in Africa”. Applied Energy . 341 : 121096. ISSN 0306-2619. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121096
Proposed contributions (please add your talk below 
following the above template/style)
title : Using a global energy system model for a detailed country study
presenter : Hazem Abdel-Khalek @Hazemakhalek, Martha Frysztacki (Open Energy Transition)
description : This presentation introduces a case study applying PyPSA-Earth for an energy
transition study in Kazakhstan. We will show how we tailored a global open energy
system model with high spatial and temporal resolution data to the specific country’s
requirements. The novel approach avoids the time-consuming creation of models for
every country and fosters collaboration, addressing the challenges of the energy
transition together.
code repository :
literature :
title : Supporting Open Energy Planning in African Power Systems
presenter : Will Usher, Ekaterina Fedotova (Open Energy Transition)
description : This initiative supports African utilities and system operators in strengthening their capacity to plan and operate climate-resilient, modern power systems using open-source energy modelling tools. By working with utilities and regional partners, the project explores how open tools can improve transparency, collaboration, and power system planning. Starting with pilot activities in Zambia, the initiative seeks to demonstrate practical use cases and support broader
adoption of open approaches to energy planning across the region.
code repository :
literature :
title : Mapping Energy Modelling Tools: openmod-tracker & Feature Inventory
presenter : Hazem Abdel-Khalek, Bryn Pickering (Open Energy Transition)
description : Open energy modelling tools are growing rapidly, but it is often unclear which tools exist, what
they can do, and where key functionality gaps remain. The openmod-tracker and Feature
Inventory map tools and their capabilities to improve transparency and coordination. This
lightning talk introduces these resources and invites contributions to expand coverage and
highlight gaps compared to proprietary software.
code repository :
literature :
title : Benchmarking Energy System Solvers: Insights from HiGHS and Open
Energy Benchmark
presenter : Sid Krishna, Daniele Lerede, Enrico Antonini (Open Energy Transition)
description : Efficient solvers are critical for large-scale energy system modelling. Recent benchmarking efforts, including developments around HiGHS, are helping the community better understand solver performance across different modelling problems. This lightning talk highlights the Open Energy Benchmark platform (openenergybenchmark.org) and ongoing benchmarking
activities that compare solvers in a transparent and reproducible way. The goal is to raise
awareness of these efforts and encourage broader participation in benchmarking and
performance testing across energy modelling tools.
code repository :
literature :