THE 2026 ENERGY FORUM

Six takeaways from the 2026 Energy Forum

1. Reliability is the new investable thesis.
   John Geraghty opened the forum with the line that anchored the day: "Energy in 2026 is neither abundant at the times we need it most, nor is it low cost. It is constrained strategic infrastructure." The panel returned to this point throughout, noting that capital is repricing around dispatchable, locationally-relevant power.
2. There is no silver bullet.
   Every panelist agreed the future grid will be regional, scenario-specific, and built from a mix of solar, storage, gas, wind, transmission, and selectively coal and nuclear. Fahad Siddiqui of TotalEnergies put it directly: "I don't think there will be one silver bullet that we've been hearing for so long."
3. Gas is not the magic wand the market expects.
   "Gas is not the magic wand that people want it to be," said Brent Nelson of Ascend Analytics. Turbine costs have tripled over three years, and after stacked incentives, eight-hour storage can be built today for roughly $1,000 per kilowatt versus $2,500 or more for new gas.
4. FEOC remains unclear, and patient capital is positioned to benefit.
   The panel agreed that FEOC guidance is still unclear and that there is no defensible workaround. Bobby Majumder of FBT Gibbons noted that "there's no workarounds for FEOC," while Fahad Siddiqui of TotalEnergies added: "It's patient capital. It's who can be patient here. And this will thin out the herd."
5. Announced data center demand is unlikely to be fully delivered.
   In one of the forum's most pointed exchanges, panel estimates of how much announced data center capacity will actually come online ranged from roughly 10 percent in ERCOT to 50 percent in regulated markets. Brent Nelson called ERCOT's projections unrealistic, citing capital, labor, and chip availability as binding constraints.
6. The grid itself is the underhyped risk.
   Ken Malik of Grupo Cobra named transmission scarcity as one of the most underdiscussed barriers in the market, particularly the gap between where capacity is generated and where data centers are sited. Bobby Majumder of FBT Gibbons underscored the structural condition: "Our grid in the United States hasn't had any meaningful upgrades since the 1970s."