SPEAKERS & PANELS
2026 SPEAKER PREVIEW
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Ernest J Moniz
MIT / US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Professor of Physics / Former US Secretary of Energy
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Justin Worland
TIME
Senior Correspondent
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James H. Stock
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability
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Colleen Wright
CONSTELLATION
VP, Strategy and Growth
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Catherine Wolfram
MIT SLOAN
William Barton Rogers Professor of Energy Economics
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Thomas-Olivier Léautier
TOTALENERGIES
Chief Economist
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Jinye Zhao
ISO NEW ENGLAND
Technical Manager
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Paul Hines
ENERGYHUB
Chief Scientist and VP, Power Systems
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Petrus Christiaan Pistorius
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
POSCO Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
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Joe Hicken
SUBLIME SYSTEMS
SVP, Business Development & Policy
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Nicholas Fry
JACOBS
Thermal Energy Networks Market Lead - North America
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Brent Ridley
MIT CLIMATE PROJECT
Senior Advisor, Impact and Translation
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Guillaume Lambotte
BOSTON METAL
Chief Scientist
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Marija Ilic
MIT
Joint Adjunct Professor EECS and Senior Research Scientist LIDS
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Tricia Keegan
VICINITY ENERGY
SVP Operations
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Ayse Coskun
EMERALD AI / BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Chief Scientist / Professor
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Andy Sun
MIT SLOAN
Iberdrola-Avangrid Professor in Electric Power Systems
2026 PANEL PREVIEW
Subject to change as details are confirmed.
THE RELIABILITY EQUATION
Balance in Today’s Energy Mix
Ahead of the clean energy transition, there is a need to develop plans and standards to ensure a smooth and efficient execution. To minimize transitional disruptions to the existing electric grid, one must first understand the existing contributors and the balance currently struck between affordability, sustainability and reliability.
DECARBONIZING HEAVY INDUSTRIES
A Hard-to-Abate Challenge
Despite being responsible for an enormous share of global emissions, heavy industry rarely takes center stage in climate conversations. This panel shines a spotlight on the toughest decarbonization challenges, from high-temperature heat to carbon-intensive materials, and the emerging solutions that could reshape the industrial economy.
GRID STABILITY
Managing Rising and Variable Load & Demand
Electric power grids are currently facing all-time highs in demand as the changing climate hits residential consumers hard, and growing populations coupled with increasing deployment of digital technologies drive energy use upwards. Concurrently, as renewable penetration increases to meet clean energy goals, the intermittent nature of its generation can lead to grid instability. With energy use strongly tied to socioeconomic development, how do we ensure that the electric grid is capable of meeting rising demands while maintaining current standards for reliability?
FINANCING FAIR TRANSITIONS
Global Collaboration for an Equitable Energy Future
Emerging markets will define the pace of global decarbonization, yet gaps in capital, infrastructure, and policy alignment threaten to leave those most vulnerable behind. By reimaging risk-sharing mechanisms and cross-border partnerships, countries can unlock investment that advances both climate and development goals. Panelists will discuss how global institutions and industry can collaborate to build reliable, affordable, and low-carbon energy systems that drive shared prosperity.
POWERING DATA CENTERS
Present and Future
The race to power AI is reshaping the global energy landscape. How are today’s data centers powered, and what technologies will be needed to meet tomorrow’s unprecedented AI-driven demand? This discussion brings together utility, generation, and hyperscaler perspectives to examine current energy generation and transmission challenges, the evolving procurement landscape, and the frontier technologies that could define the next decade of digital infrastructure growth.
SECURING THE ENERGY FUTURE
Capital for Resilience
This panel explores how global capital can be mobilized to drive the energy transition while ensuring that the shift toward renewables enhances rather than undermines the resilience of our energy systems. Achieving a resilient and equitable energy transition requires major investment across proven and emerging technologies. This panel brings together leaders from finance, energy, and government to examine how diverse forms of capital can scale infrastructure, strengthen the future grid, and secure long-term resilience.
THE FLEXIBLE FRONTIER
Rethinking Data Center Load
As data centers rapidly become one of the largest and most dynamic sources of electricity demand, flexibility is emerging as a critical lever for grid resilience. This panel explores the challenges of interconnecting large loads, the system-level benefits of flexible operation, and the technologies enabling new forms of flexibility - from compute orchestration and AI-driven demand management to on-site storage and power generation.
REBUILDING SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE
Critical Minerals and the Reshoring Imperative
As climate and geopolitical pressures reshape global trade, notably with regards to the supply of critical minerals, this panel discusses pathways to sustainable and resilient supply chains. In particular, there is a strong emphasis on reshoring mining and manufacturing capacity to support decarbonization efforts, in addition to bolstering domestic supply and economic security.