How to Create an Affordable Energy Future for All

When asked why they chose Tado, he said that the main reason for customers is, “I want to save money. The second reason is, I want to make the planet a better place. If we cannot achieve the first,” he emphasized, “the second becomes weak.”

China seems to offer many solutions. Although coal consumption is rising, it will rise in 2026 as renewables come online, with MingYang Smart Energy president Qiying Zhang explaining that floating and rigid offshore wind turbines are replacing fossil fuels. In August the company installed the world’s single largest offshore wind turbine, MySE18.X-20MW, in Hainan, capable of generating 80 million kWh annually, removing 66,000 tons of CO.₂.

Meanwhile, the electrification of transport in the country is moving at a fast pace, thanks to heavy government subsidies. “In China, there were 570,000 EVs purchased in August, and if you don’t drive an electric car in China, you’re considered a very boring person,” Stella Li, vice president of Chinese EV giant BYD, told the room. The new Z9 GT offers “intelligent steering,” meaning the car can park itself—even sideways on hard surfaces, thanks to its extendable rear axle.

“The epicenter of the energy revolution is China, which has a good track record,” said Arthur Downing, Octopus Energy’s director of strategy. “Until the 18th century, the economic center of the world was China. It was the first power shift of the industrial revolution in Britain which shifted that economic center of gravity to Europe. So we are coming full circle with extraordinary speed.”

Ann Mettler, European vice president of Bill Gates’s sustainable energy organization Breakthrough Energy, and Sabrina Schulz, a climate, energy, and biodiversity strategist, agreed that while Europe was developing, it was lagging behind and needed a mix of public and private. with financing to achieve by connecting and renewing the grids and considering decentralized power plants or even. “Policy certainty and public guarantees for investment in, let’s say, regional green heat are the perfect conditions for investors,” said Schulz.

Sana Khareghani, a professor of AI practice at King’s College London, suggested that AI could help, manage and improve power grids and help develop new batteries to store energy when it’s needed most—helping reduce reliance on fossil fuel generators.