Energy bottlenecks in the age of AI: fix the grid, or build around it?
The hosts:
Andrea Gluscevic, Lightrock
Inês Amorim Rocha, Blue Earth Capital
What is this Ripple about?
A century ago, Edison and Tesla fought over which current would power the world - Edison's DC was inherently local and decentralised, while Tesla's AC enabled centralised generation transmitted over distance. Today, AI's energy demands are overwhelming a grid built for a different era, forcing a choice on every bottleneck: upgrade the centralised system, or build decentralised around it.
Why this topic timely or urgent in 2026
The AI power crunch is no longer hypothetical. Regulation is creating bottlenecks in growing renewable capacity, connection queues are stretching into years, and high energy costs are driving down Europe's competitiveness. Capital is being deployed without clarity on the long-term energy system architecture and where centralised versus decentralised makes sense.
Key questions or challenges being explored
Where are the real bottlenecks in Europe's energy system today: grids, permitting, storage, or capital? For each bottleneck, does the answer lie in upgrading centralised infrastructure (transmission, interconnectors, grid software) or in building decentralised (behind-the-meter generation, storage, microgrids, virtual power plants), and where do hybrids win? Where does the investable opportunity actually sit for startups and private capital across these solutions?
The key tension or debate at the heart of this discussion
The same force breaking Europe's energy system may be the thing that finally fixes it. The AI demand signal is finally clear enough to justify the capital, political will, and infrastructure overhaul that renewables alone could never quite mobilise. But it splits the room on the solution: patch and upgrade the centralised grid we have or let private capital and hyperscalers build decentralised systems around it. The first is slower but keeps energy as shared public infrastructure; the second is faster but risks Europe solving its energy problem while losing sovereignty over it.
Who would get the most value from attending this Ripple?
Founders building in power generation and delivery, distributed energy, energy storage and grid technology; data centre developers; cloud service providers; VCs and infra investors; energy and industrial stakeholders and policy makers.