With demand growing at a pace not seen in a generation, DERs are central to how the grid will be planned, built, and used. We’re excited to hear directly from one of the nation’s key energy regulators.

“As a commissioner, one of my top priorities is to leverage technology and embrace innovation, all with an eye toward better delivering on FERC’s mission.” - Commissioner David Rosner

Join us @ DERVOS

Register here

We’re excited to announce “Bringing Distributed Compute Benefits Home,” a session exploring how residential solar and storage could become the foundation of a decentralized edge computing network.

Grab your ticket here

Sunrun launched its distributed AI compute pilot in 2026, with the goal of turning residential and multi-family homes equipped with solar and battery storage into a decentralized edge computing network. In September 2026, Sunrun and SPAN expanded their partnership to pursue a gigawatt-scale, behind-the-meter distributed AI compute solution using customer-sited solar-plus-battery systems.

The model starts with new construction. Sunrun and SPAN are working with residential communities built from the ground up, beginning in Texas and other select markets. In these homes, the solar and battery systems power both the household and the AI compute nodes locally.

The pitch is that this approach avoids the transmission overloads and generation bottlenecks typical of traditional centralized data centers, and sidesteps the multi-year timelines and high capital costs of building large-scale facilities.

We can’t wait to hear more.

Join us

Join us at DERVOS

Paul Hines leads EnergyHub’s technical and product teams, guiding development of industry-leading solutions in distributed energy resource (DER) forecasting, DER optimization, and virtual power plant (VPP) management.

Before joining EnergyHub, Paul was the co-founder and CEO of Packetized Energy (acquired by EnergyHub), which used advanced algorithms to unlock new grid services from fleets of DERs.

With over 25 years of experience spanning academia, industry, and government, Paul has held power systems research and engineering roles at the University of Vermont as a tenured professor, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Alstom ESCA, and Black and Veatch.

Paul earned a PhD in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master’s in Electrical Engineering (Power Systems) from the University of Washington, and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Seattle Pacific University.

Grab your ticket today

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Our full agenda-at-a-glance is ready for eyeballs.

9:00am - DER Task Force Welcome

9:30am - Keynote with Ember

10am - Panel 1: Demystifying Data Center Flexibility with Google, Emerald AI, Luminary Strategies and Scale

10:50am - Showcase with Google

11:10am - Showcase with Pew Trusts

11:30am - Lunch with breakout lightning stages with UtilityAPI, Sunrun and AES

12:45pm - Showcase with Octopus Energy

1:05pm - Panel 2: Massive Top-Down DERs Deployment with Base Power, Sparkfund, PG&E and Advanced Energy United

1:55pm - Showcase with EnergyHub

2:15pm - Showcase with Utilize

2:30pm - Break

3:00pm - Showcase with EG4

3:20pm - Showcase with SOLARPUNKS

3:40pm - Panel 3: SolarMaxxing with EG4, Redwood, Planted and QCELLS

4:45pm - Happy Hour

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The biggest shouts to our supporters

Some of these folks have been keeping the DERVOS lights on since the very beginning (we’re looking at you EnergyHub and Sunrun) and some are getting involved this year in a big way and we couldn’t run this event without these sponsors. Thank you <3.

Join us!

Google has been ahead of that curve. The company recently announced 1 GW of contracted demand response capacity across utilities in the US. The question is: how does Google actually do it?

We’re excited to announce a Spotlight Main Stage Session at DERVOS that answers it.

Get your ticket

Varun will take the audience inside Google’s data center fleet to show what has happened, and what is happening now, to make demand response work at hyperscale.

What you’ll learn

Hyperscale flexibility, demystified. What does it mean for a data center to be flexible? Varun will cut through the assumptions and explain how it works in practice.

The 1 GW milestone. A look at what it took to reach 1 GW of contracted demand response capacity across US utilities, and what that signals for the industry.

The technical mechanics. Google started with CPU-based demand response, and the approach has since evolved to ML infrastructure. Varun will cover how that progression happened and what it takes to deliver capacity at scale and across time horizons.

A bridge to the DER and VPP ecosystem. Hyperscalers and the distributed energy resource community have more in common than it might seem. This session explores where the two worlds connect and what each can learn from the other.

Why this matters for our community

Our community has spent years building the tools, markets, and trust needed to make distributed flexibility a reliable grid resource. As large loads reshape the planning conversation, the line between “data center” and “flexible resource” is blurring. Hear more at DERVOS.

Grab your ticket

For the last two decades distributed energy has been grassroots - it’s been as much about energy freedom from the utility as it’s been about increased resilience, reliability and lower power costs. It was countercultural. You got a solar system in part because the economics made sense for your roof, but usually also you cared about climate, or you wanted to provide control over your power destiny. The grid figured out how to use all of it later, but it was bottoms-up by design, prioritizing the end-users needs.

But looking at the market today, that’s... not really how it’s playing out anymore.

Utilities and hyperscalers are stepping in and writing the checks. Whether it’s PG&E and Google subsidizing home upgrades to clear distribution constraints, Sparkfund deploying utility-controlled batteries in front of the meter, or Base Power acting as a vertically integrated BTM storage provider for utilities in TX.The capital is centralized. The deployment is targeted on where it helps the broader grid most. The assets still live on your block, but the control sure doesn’t.

It begs the question: Are we still building a decentralized grid, or are we just building a centralized grid using distributed real estate? And more importantly, does it matter? How does this new system impact the end users and how should we feel about utility-involvement in movement that started off against utilities?

We have an incredible lineup joining me to unpack this: Pier LaFarge (Sparkfund), Heather O’Neill (Advanced Energy United), Trevor Udwin (PG&E), and Tim Pianta (Base Power). Bring your hardest questions for the Q&A.

See you there!

DERVOS 2026 — November 5th, Duggal Greenhouse, Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Buy Tickets

Also, if you haven’t yet filled out our community survey, there is still time! This survey is our chance to capture the voice of our community on the questions that matter most right now - the risks and accelerants shaping the industry, where we should focus to strengthen our advocacy, and what you want to learn from your peers at DERVOS.

Buy Tickets

The High-Level

• When: November 5th, 2026 - 8:30am - 6:00pm

• Where: Duggal Greenhouse, Brooklyn Navy Yard, NYC

• Tickets: $899 full price, $699 for a limited time only

Buy Tickets

You can expect a full day complete with

• Incredible speakers and panels

• Topics that actually matter with unrestrained hot takes

• Awesome showcases from some of our favorite companies

• Time to hang with a seriously amazing group of peers

• A big ass party at the end

The Big Theme: Everything is DER

Five years ago, distributed energy was still treated like a sideshow to the “real” power system. Today, it increasingly is the only viable solution to the myriad woes facing the power system. Data centers are building their own massive behind-the-meter energy systems. Companies are turning flexible load into hundreds of megawatts of capacity. Batteries and solar are becoming plug-and-play consumer products. Utilities and grid operators are procuring distributed capacity at scale. And as interconnection queues, transmission planning, and institutional decision-making become increasingly sclerotic, customers are simply deciding to take care of their own power needs.

That’s what we mean by Everything is DER: not that everything is small, or even literally “distributed,” but that the center of gravity is shifting toward energy resources that are closer to load and controlled by those who need the power. Sometimes that shift is bottoms-up, sometimes it’s centrally planned, but either way, DERs aren’t the sideshow anymore. They’re the main event.

Some key topics we’ll explore:

1. Demystifying AI & Data Centers - What the hell is going on in these things? How much of this power demand is real? Will it keep growing exponentially or are we near the top? How is this reinventing infrastructure development? Is BYOP the path for industrial demand growth?

2. SolarMaxxing - A new era of solar is upon us. Industrial-scale solar and battery project designs are being reinvented to serve on-site loads, at high reliability, and quickly. Will we see $3/w 24/7 FIRM solar + storage in the near future, as Jesse Peltan prophesies?

3. Massive Top-Down DERs Deployment - Whether it’s vertically integrated IOUs placing batteries throughout the distribution grid, hyperscalers contracting to deploy hundreds of MWs into ISO markets, or utilities working with residential battery suppliers to free up capacity in their system, it’s clear that DERs no longer need to be sold one at a time. There’s a centralized path to scale, but does it align with distributed principles?

4. The Wide-Open State of Power System Planning, Regulation, and Expansion - Has the “deregulated” power system shown it is able to grow? Or is a return to the vertically integrated IOU required? Are interconnection processes doomed to perpetual sclerosis? Will governors continue to assert their will as the grid becomes one of the largest election issues and utilities wind up in the crosshairs of the media? More than ever in our lifetimes, it feels like just about anything is possible over the next few years. Under the pressure of massive demand, our institutions are failing and the form of response most likely is uncertain. Whatever happens, this is the moment that will be written about in the history books.

Buy Tickets

Agenda at-a-glance

9:00am - DER Task Force Welcome

9:20am - Keynote with Ember

9:50am - Fireside Chat with FERC Commissioner Rosner and Jigar Shah

10:15am - Panel 1: Demystifying Data Center Flexibility with Google, Emerald AI, Luminary Strategies and Scale

11:10am - Showcase with Google

11:30am - Lunch with breakout lightning stages with UtilityAPI, Sunrun and AES

12:45pm - Showcase with Octopus Energy

1:05pm - Panel 2: Massive Top-Down DERs Deployment with Base Power, Sparkfund, PG&E and Advanced Energy United

1:55pm - Showcase with EnergyHub

2:15pm - Showcase with Utilize

2:30pm - Break

3:00pm - Showcase with EG4

3:20pm - Showcase with Pew Trusts

3:40pm - Panel 3: SolarMaxxing with EG4, Redwood, Planted and QCELLS

4:45pm - Happy Hour

6:00pm - Unofficial afterparty at Transmitter Brewing

Speakers & Presenters

We’re finalizing confirmations for our speaker lineup but in the meantime we’re psyched to announce these badass DER experts who will join us on stage.

The biggest shouts to our supporters

Some of these folks have been keeping the DERVOS lights on since the very beginning (we’re looking at you EnergyHub and Sunrun) and some are getting involved this year in a big way and we couldn’t run this event without these sponsors. Thank you <3.

Buy tickets

What’s the vibe like?

Want a taste of what’s in store? Check out last year’s recap video:

Want more? Here are recordings of most of last year’s stage content:

• DERVOS 2025 Keynote: Solar Pill the World with Jesse Peltan

• ThunDERdome 1: Big DERs Energy

• ThunDERdome 2: Permissionless DERs Wait for No One

• ThunDERdome 3: Deploying and Orchestrating GWs of Distributed Capacity

• ThunDERdome 4: Energy Dominance and the Electrostate

• Circuit Breaker: Jigar Shah & Nick Chaset, CEO, Octopus Energy

• Showcase 1 - From Driveway to Grid: The First Mass Market DER

• Showcase 2: Permissionless DERs Showdown

• Showcase 2.5: Permissionless DERs for Small Businesses

• Showcase 3: Sunrun’s VPP Update
  

Buy Tickets

Buy Tickets

We have a killer lineup of speakers and wanted to send out a sneak peak of some initial badass DER experts who will join us on stage on November 5.

Buy Tickets

We’re super excited about this batch of speakers. They’ve been up to amazing things lately and will bring the spicy details to DERVOS:

• Emerald AI (along with NVIDIA, Google, Anthropic) just launched a new data center flexibility alliance called AEMA that seeks to change the game on Data Center grid interactivity.

• Base Power recently announced utility programs in Texas, PJM, and Illinois to turn home backup into a grid resource. Base also just dropped one of the deepest dives we’ve ever seen on using aggregated DERs to enable new large load interconnections.

• QCells just finished building the largest solar cell factory in the US and inked a partnership with Microsoft to power their AI data center demand.

• Planted Solar just raised a big Google-backed Series-B to scale its robotic solar installation technology that promises to dramatically lower installed solar project cost.

• Redwood Materials is expanding its partnership with Crusoe to use second-life batteries and solar to power modular data centers.

Buy Tickets

And here’s a refresher on what we’re up to at DERVOS 2026. Come join us!

The High-Level

• When: November 5th, 2026

• Where: Duggal Greenhouse, Brooklyn Navy Yard, NYC

• Tickets: $899 full price, $699 for a limited time only

You can expect a full day complete with

• Incredible speakers and panels

• Topics that actually matter with unrestrained hot takes

• Awesome showcases from some of our favorite companies

• Time to hang with a seriously amazing group of peers

• A big ass party at the end

The Big Theme: Everything is DER

Five years ago, distributed energy was still treated like a sideshow to the “real” power system. Today, it increasingly is the only viable solution to the myriad woes facing the power system. Data centers are building their own massive behind-the-meter energy systems. Companies are turning flexible load into hundreds of megawatts of capacity. Batteries and solar are becoming plug-and-play consumer products. Utilities and grid operators are procuring distributed capacity at scale. And as interconnection queues, transmission planning, and institutional decision-making become increasingly sclerotic, customers are simply deciding to take care of their own power needs.

That’s what we mean by Everything is DER: not that everything is small, or even literally “distributed,” but that the center of gravity is shifting toward energy resources that are closer to load and controlled by those who need the power. Sometimes that shift is bottoms-up, sometimes it’s centrally planned, but either way, DERs aren’t the sideshow anymore. They’re the main event.

Some key topics we’ll explore:

1. Demystifying AI & Data Centers - What the hell is going on in these things? How much of this power demand is real? Will it keep growing exponentially or are we near the top? How is this reinventing infrastructure development? Is BYOP the path for industrial demand growth?

2. SolarMaxxing - A new era of solar is upon us. Industrial-scale solar and battery project designs are being reinvented to serve on-site loads, at high reliability, and quickly. Will we see $3/w 24/7 FIRM solar + storage in the near future, as Jesse Peltan prophesies?

3. Massive Top-Down DERs Deployment - Whether it’s vertically integrated IOUs placing batteries throughout the distribution grid, hyperscalers contracting to deploy hundreds of MWs into ISO markets, or utilities working with residential battery suppliers to free up capacity in their system, it’s clear that DERs no longer need to be sold one at a time. There’s a centralized path to scale, but does it align with distributed principles?

4. The Wide-Open State of Power System Planning, Regulation, and Expansion - Has the “deregulated” power system shown it is able to grow? Or is a return to the vertically integrated IOU required? Are interconnection processes doomed to perpetual sclerosis? Will governors continue to assert their will as the grid becomes one of the largest election issues and utilities wind up in the crosshairs of the media? More than ever in our lifetimes, it feels like just about anything is possible over the next few years. Under the pressure of massive demand, our institutions are failing and the form of response most likely is uncertain. Whatever happens, this is the moment that will be written about in the history books.
   

Buy Tickets

Last chance to get involved:

Interested in sponsoring the event this year? Reach out to nicole@dertaskforce.com to learn more.

Your responses will directly shape our second-ever State of DERs report to be presented at the conference. Plus if you bring the heat, your (anonymized) hottest take could be featured live on stage.

• Take the survey here

• Don’t forget to buy your tickets to DERVOS November 5

But first, because of a capacity issue with our initial venue, we have made the decision to relocate DERVOS, which also means having to change the date. The event continues to grow beyond our expectations and scaling it sustainably has been challenging. We’re sorry to do this and hope it doesn’t disrupt too many travel plans, but ultimately believe it is necessary to deliver you guys an incredible show.

DERVOS 2026 will now be held on November 5th at Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This new venue is amazing and it feels great to get back to our Navy Yard roots. We still love Governors Island too—they have been an incredibly supportive partner and will continue to be when we head back there soon!

And of course, if you’ve already purchased tickets but this new date doesn’t work for you, a full refund will be available.

So without further ado, we’re psyched to re-announce DERVOS 2026!

DERVOS 2026: Everything is DER

Buy Tickets

The High-Level

• When: November 5th, 2026

• Where: Duggal Greenhouse, Brooklyn Navy Yard, NYC

• Tickets: $899 full price, $699 for a limited time only

You can expect a full day complete with

• Incredible speakers and panels

• Topics that actually matter with unrestrained hot takes

• Awesome showcases from some of our favorite companies

• Time to hang with a seriously amazing group of peers

• A big ass party at the end

The Big Theme: Everything is DER

Five years ago, distributed energy was still treated like a sideshow to the “real” power system. Today, it increasingly is the only viable solution to the myriad woes facing the power system. Data centers are building their own massive behind-the-meter energy systems. Companies are turning flexible load into hundreds of megawatts of capacity. Batteries and solar are becoming plug-and-play consumer products. Utilities and grid operators are procuring distributed capacity at scale. And as interconnection queues, transmission planning, and institutional decision-making become increasingly sclerotic, customers are simply deciding to take care of their own power needs.

That’s what we mean by Everything is DER: not that everything is small, or even literally “distributed,” but that the center of gravity is shifting toward energy resources that are closer to load and controlled by those who need the power. Sometimes that shift is bottoms-up, sometimes it’s centrally planned, but either way, DERs aren’t the sideshow anymore. They’re the main event.

Some key topics we’ll explore:

1. Demystifying AI & Data Centers - What the hell is going on in these things? How much of this power demand is real? Will it keep growing exponentially or are we near the top? How is this reinventing infrastructure development? Is BYOP the path for industrial demand growth?

2. SolarMaxxing - A new era of solar is upon us. Industrial-scale solar and battery project designs are being reinvented to serve on-site loads, at high reliability, and quickly. Will we see $3/w 24/7 FIRM solar + storage in the near future, as Jesse Peltan prophesies?

3. Massive Top-Down DERs Deployment - Whether it’s vertically integrated IOUs placing batteries throughout the distribution grid, hyperscalers contracting to deploy hundreds of MWs into ISO markets, or utilities working with residential battery suppliers to free up capacity in their system, it’s clear that DERs no longer need to be sold one at a time. There’s a centralized path to scale, but does it align with distributed principles?

4. The Wide-Open State of Power System Planning, Regulation, and Expansion - Has the “deregulated” power system shown it is able to grow? Or is a return to the vertically integrated IOU required? Are interconnection processes doomed to perpetual sclerosis? Will governors continue to assert their will as the grid becomes one of the largest election issues and utilities wind up in the crosshairs of the media? More than ever in our lifetimes, it feels like just about anything is possible over the next few years. Under the pressure of massive demand, our institutions are failing and the form of response most likely is uncertain. Whatever happens, this is the moment that will be written about in the history books.

Buy Tickets

Speakers & Presenters

We’re not quite ready to announce the full list of speakers, but the goal is to somehow be even more epic than last year. Here are some of last year’s speakers to give you a sense of who’s involved.

• Jigar Shah, Multiplier LLC, Managing Director

• Ryan Long, Xcel Energy, Executive Vice President

• Nick Chaset, Octopus Energy US, CEO

• Dana Guernsey, Voltus, CEO & Co-Founder

• Sean Jones, Tesla, Lead, Market Development - Data Centers; Tesla Megapack

• Tristan Doherty, LG, Chief Product Officer

• Tyler Norris, Google, Head of Market Innovation, Advanced Energy

• Hallie Carrao, Google, Technical Program Manager, Energy

• Chris Rauscher, Sunrun, VP & Head of Grid Services & Electrification

• Seth Frader-Thompson, EnergyHub, CEO

• Drew Baglino, Heron Power, CEO

• Sam D’Amico, Impulse Labs, CEO

• Daan Walter, Ember Analytics, Principal

• Jesse Peltan, Type 1, Founder

• Vic Shao, DC Grid, Founder & CEO

• Cole Ashman, Pila Energy, Founder & CEO

• Kevin Chou, Bright Saver, Executive Director & Founder

• Bala Ramamurthy, Critical Loop, CEO

• Colleen Metelitsa, Scale Microgrids, Senior Strategy Director

• James McGinniss, David Energy, CEO & Co-Founder

• Duncan Campbell, Scale Microgrids, VP Data Center Solutions

What’s the vibe like?

Want a taste of what’s in store? Check out last year’s recap video:

Want more? Here are recordings of most of last year’s stage content:

• DERVOS 2025 Keynote: Solar Pill the World with Jesse Peltan

• ThunDERdome 1: Big DERs Energy

• ThunDERdome 2: Permissionless DERs Wait for No One

• ThunDERdome 3: Deploying and Orchestrating GWs of Distributed Capacity

• ThunDERdome 4: Energy Dominance and the Electrostate

• Circuit Breaker: Jigar Shah & Nick Chaset, CEO, Octopus Energy

• Showcase 1 - From Driveway to Grid: The First Mass Market DER

• Showcase 2: Permissionless DERs Showdown

• Showcase 2.5: Permissionless DERs for Small Businesses

• Showcase 3: Sunrun’s VPP Update

Buy Tickets

The DER Task Force’s community of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, utilities, and advocates is shaping the future of clean, reliable, and affordable power in the U.S. This survey is our chance to capture the voice of that community on the questions that matter most right now - the risks and accelerants shaping the industry, where we should focus to strengthen our advocacy, and what you want to learn from your peers at DERVOS Main Day on September 18 and beyond.

Your responses will directly shape our second-ever State of DERs report, help set the agenda for DERVOS 2027 programming, and identify gaps and opportunities across the community.

The survey takes about 10-13 minutes, and all responses are confidential and reported in aggregate only.

You can take the survey here.

Thank you for being part of this community and for helping make distributed energy more visible, actionable, and effective.

Don't forget to snag your DERVOS ticket!

Have we become too Malthusian? Is AI an extension of Steve Jobs’ “bicycle for the mind” metaphor, or is it becoming more of a wholesale replacement for the bicyclist? Are your alt milk lattes and petroleum-derived garments more environmentally destructive than a data center? Will Meltem achieve her dream of deploying fleets of self-replicating nanosatellites into the universe to spread versions of herself, infecting alien cultures with her self-described “weird-ass personality?” Should David Energy create a brutalist, fluted concrete battery? Is Duncan “smoking crack?” These questions – and many more – discussed and/or generally riffed upon in this week’s DER Task Force.

Get your early bird tickets here. Tickets will go from $499 to $699 to $899 as each tier sells out, so jump on it now! If you’re a student or need a cheaper ticket for some other reason, email us at info@dertaskforce.com with some context and we’ll see if we can help. Or if you want to sponsor, email us there too.

While we’re still finalizing content and speakers, you can expect us to go even deeper on some of the big topics we introduced last year:

• DERs are coming and its a mess! The state of and path forward for our regulatory complex

• De-mystifing what’s really going on with AI, data centers, and how to power them

• Solar-maxxing

• Electrotech

And so much more.

We recommend you stay in downtown Manhattan to be near the ferry!

Our work @TheDavidEnergy leveraging bi-directional, plug-in batteries to lower costs for small businesses is now public, and it coincides with some broader macro shifts in the power sector that I’ve been meditating on.

The power of plug-in is remarkable and comes at a time when our regulatory construct is falling behind. If we wait for permission from that construct, we’ll never move as fast as we need to. Plug-in is our way out, at least for consumers and businesses.

The shift from permitted solar + storage systems to plug-in is as big as the shift from on-prem to the cloud, or mainframe to PCs, or however you want to think about it. Imagine if every time you bought an iPhone or laptop, you needed a permit and an inspection--the internet never would have taken off with that much friction. Plug-in is the frictionless path to scale the DERs movement has been waiting for and will soon become the dominant form of DERs deployment.

After seeing plug-in in action over the last few months, it’s clear that we are at the dawn of a new era in DERs, led by a small cadre of companies like us, @ImpulseLabs @sdamico @EcoFlowTech @channingcopper @pila @ColeHAshman @Bright_Saver @KevinChou @CoraStryker @EveryElectricCo @ndrewwang and more applying plug-in technologies.

What we’re doing

We guarantee customers we will “beat the utility” if they let us take over their energy supply and install plug-in batteries on site. Since launching just a few months ago we’ve signed up hundreds of restaurants, coffee shops, gyms, laundromats, and more representing 10’s of thousands of MWhs of power demand (the equivalent of thousands of homes), and it’s only accelerating. Plug-in has unlocked the entire segment of small business that’s historically been left behind by the DERs industry and it’s incredibly scalable.

The rapid success of this launch is due to three important and novel properties that broadly apply for plug-in and is new for DERs:

1. It’s a no brainer for customers. There’s no capital requirement upfront or long-term commitment and they see savings day one. We’re not selling a premium sustainability or resilience product. We’re just lowering costs--across both delivery through demand charge management and supply through aggregation--in one simple value prop and vertically-integrated solution. Customers are feeling the pain of rising costs, and we alleviate that pain.

2. Plug-in batteries do not require permits or complex installs, which allow us to scale incredibly fast and cheaply in a market where no one thinks that is possible, NYC. We can sign a customer on a Monday and deploy by that Friday. Our soft costs are <10% of total system costs, compared to an average of >50% for traditional single-family residential systems. There’s no need for costly alterations to the existing panel or service, we just deploy as much capacity as we can with the existing interconnection. At the theoretical limit, we are bound only by hardware costs, which continue to plummet, not the soft costs that have plagued residential solar and storage.

3. We serve tenants, not land owners because it’s incredibly easy to pick up and move batteries. This will change underwriting dynamics of deploying what are still infrastructure grade assets and it’s why we don’t force them into long-term commitments. This property in particular democratizes access and will open up entirely new segments to DERs.

These same properties apply to other new verticals, like multi-family renters, which won’t be far behind.

Why it matters

Load growth is back and our existing institutions don’t seem to be adapting quickly enough. Plenty of ink has been spilled on the topic, but it’s worth reiterating that we’re doing this to ourselves. Above all, our own bureaucracies and red-tape are what are slowing us down most--not technology, will, capital availability, or customer demand.

Solar and storage has been 95% of new interconnection the last two years, but the future of that continuing feels uncertain. We’re seeing a number of serious headwinds for the industry: The solar ITC is going away. The federal administration wants to make it harder for the industry at every turn, and local jurisdictions (even in blue states) can’t get out of their own way. Our largest power market, PJM, is a mess and the queue they just opened up is dominated by gas. In the best case, deployment is way slower than it can and must be to deal with rising demand.

Plug-in represents a new pathway to deployment that doesn’t require any centralized permission or coordination. In fact, the worse our centralized system gets--and the higher resulting costs to consumers--the stronger the bull case for them. Customers will just take matters into their own hands, as they did in Germany with plug-in or at the extreme, Pakistan with grid defection.

Where we’re headed

Plug-in will soon dwarf traditional residential and commercial interconnected systems. Contrary to the public perception, plug-in does not mean small and it’s not just something you do if you can’t do it the traditional way. At David Energy, we see a path to be deploying 100kwh+ systems in buildings that are incredibly cheap and superior to comemrcial rooftop or ground-mounted systems. While the commercially available products are small today, this will soon change. We will see 10s of GWs deployed across the US in just the next few years and beyond that, hundreds.

Our existing systems will have no choice but to adapt to them because they’re going to scale so fast. Soon, they’re going to be everywhere. Over the last decade, I’ve watched too many good companies and good solutions struggle to get adoption while they worked hard for policy change that never came. Plug-in is not anti-institutions or anti-regulation, but it’s not going to wait for them.

These systems are safe (UL certified), reliable, and just make sense to do from an engineering and economic standpoint. There’s really no way to stop them, and no reason to. This means they’re coming, whether we’re ready for it or not.

We couldn’t help ourselves once we sat down with Daan Walter, principal of Ember, to unpack how solar and batteries are fueling the electrotech revolution, why it’s happening faster than anyone expected, and what this looks like far beyond the U.S.

This disruption is all about cheaper, better technology winning the day across the entire stack, from generation and storage to how we consume energy. It’s particularly interesting in emerging markets, where energy is evolving like smartphones did—leapfrogging traditional infrastructure.

As global oil supply disruptions have reclaimed the front page because of the war in Iran, this episode is a refreshing deep dive into the inevitable future where solar is the dominant supply of energy.

And if you need some visuals to dig into, check out the Ember team’s post for us on the electrotech revolution in 10 charts and not too many numbers.

We get into what’s up at Scale and David Energy, permissionless DERs, scalability, affordability and electricity being the super topic on the national stage in ‘26 for the first time, how it’s going to be real weird and messy, electrostates being The Thing, institutional decay in the US and on the grid, nimbyism and how some states are going to get left behind, building mainstream narratives, AI and data centers, and so much more!

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2025 was a year of new electric thinking. We saw many energy analysts and writers argue that there is more to the energy transition than just a shift from dirty to clean energy. It came in the form of McCormick and D’Amico’s The Electric Slide, to the IEA’s declaration of an Age of Electricity, to growing discussion of electro-industrialism, the rise of a New Joule Order, and the widespread use of the term electrostates, a term we introduced two years ago that gained broad uptake last year.

We laid out the facts in our September report, The Electrotech Revolution, which we also presented at DERVOS last fall. As we enter 2026, we compiled ten key insights from our work that we think are particularly important this year.

1. This is a technology revolution

The energy system is not just decarbonizing, it is entering a new technological age. A new generation of technologies is coming together: on the supply side technologies like solar and wind, demand technologies like EVs and heat pumps, and connection technologies like batteries, grids and software.

Each of these technologies is falling in price and rising exponentially in deployment. Individually, each is disruptive. But together, they form something more powerful. As supply finds demand and connections enable both, they reinforce each other on the way up. This is why we speak of not just a transition but a technology revolution.

This matters for 2026. Even as decarbonization slips down political agendas, the self-reinforcing nature of this technological transition does not stop. The revolution has its own momentum.

2. It brings energy abundance

Human history has seen only a handful of leaps in how much energy is at our disposal. Foragers relied on muscle and fire. Farmers unlocked the energy stored in crops and livestock, multiplying available energy by a hundred. Fossil fuels gave us another fifty-fold increase by tapping ancient sunlight buried underground.

Electrotech promises a similar leap. The sun delivers more energy to Earth every five days than all our fossil fuel reserves combined. As we move to tap into this solar resource, our energy system not only becomes more abundant, but also more immediate; moving from burning old sunshine to capturing it in real time. This is a shift from foraging fossil fuels to harvesting the sun.

As we are sure to see a year full of energy abundance debates in 2026, it is worth noting which path actually delivers on that promise.

3. It has been a long time coming

The rise of electrotech is not a recent trend. It has been coming for over a century. Electrification began in the 1880s, when electric lights and motors started replacing flame and steam. From there, electricity demand grew at 5-7% annually after 1900, as lights, industrial machinery, and household appliances spread across the developed world.

The mid-20th century brought televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines into homes. Then came the information age—semiconductors powering mainframes, then personal computers, then smartphones. The clean lab manufacturing techniques developed for chips eventually made mass production of solar panels and battery cells possible.

Now a century of evolution is turning the 2020s into a decade of revolution. This trend has been running longer than any administration or political setback. It comes with a century of momentum.

4. It inherits the momentum of the IT revolution

In many ways, electrotech is a child of the IT revolution. The precision processes that mass-produce chips and smartphones now build battery cells and solar panels. The same factories, often with the same workers trained by firms like Apple, now power electrotech’s rise. As McCormick and D’Amico argue in The Electric Slide, the tech stack underpinning electrotech is essentially the same as for digital technology. There is more in common between a laptop and a solar panel than between a solar panel and a gas power plant.

This explains why electrotech scales so fast: it inherits decades of manufacturing know-how and cost curves from IT.

It also reveals a strategic paradox visible in 2026. IT hardware and electrotech are the same industrial family. They share supply chains, manufacturing capabilities, network effects, and require the same abundant electricity. Building one without the other is incoherent. The current Trump administration push for AI datacenters and manufacturing automation while throttling EVs and solar exemplifies this disconnect. So does the EU’s embrace of electrotech even as it inhibits the AI rollout with complex regulation. Today’s new information technologies and electro technologies feed off each other. Those that starve one will weaken both.

5. The ceiling of the possible is far above our heads

We are nowhere close to the technical limits of electrotech. We already know how to run grids with 70-80% renewables at costs comparable to fossil fuels. We can electrify around three-quarters of final energy demand with technologies that exist today or are nearly commercial. Renewables and electrification could more than triple from current levels before reaching what we know is achievable.

And the ceiling keeps rising. As frontrunner regions push grids toward 90% renewables and innovators bring electrotech into aviation, shipping, and heavy industry, the technical frontier expands. By the time most catch up to today’s ceiling, the pioneers will have raised it once more.

In 2026, expect more narratives about slowing deployment in leading markets. But most of the world is still catching up. This catch-up dynamic alone sustains momentum for years to come.

6. The physics of change

Fossil systems are inherently wasteful, losing about two-thirds of their primary energy to heat and friction. Electrotech is built on efficient electricity: EV drivetrains convert around 80-90% of input into motion, while heat pumps deliver three to five times more heat than the electricity they consume. Wind and solar avoid thermal losses altogether. Physics itself tilts the system toward electrons.

This efficiency advantage extends to materials. Electrotech uses eternal sunshine and wind rather than one-time use fossil fuels; therefore it needs roughly 50 times fewer raw materials than fossil equivalents. This gap widens as innovation continues to improve efficiency and reduce material requirements. We should expect 2026 to be another year of such innovations and commercializations—sodium batteries being one example to watch this year.

7. The economics of change

Electrotech and fossil fuels follow opposite economic trajectories. As demand for electrotech rises, new, more efficient factories lower production costs through learning and economies of scale. Solar, wind, and batteries sit on learning curves with costs falling about 20% per doubling. Solar module costs have dropped 99% since 1980, wind by 80%, batteries by 99%.

Fossil fuels work differently. As demand rises, new, more expensive fields must be developed, driving prices up. After decades of these opposing trajectories, we have recently hit cost parity for key electrotech—solar, battery storage, and EVs. Today that means solar-plus-storage in India at $40/MWh and Chinese EVs below $10,000.

This matters acutely for 2026. Affordability is the dominant concern across politics and policy. Five years ago, affordability pressures would have pointed toward fossils. Today, they point toward electrotech. The crossover has happened. The cheaper path is now the electric path.

8. The geopolitics of change

Three-quarters of the world relies on fossil fuel imports. Get cut off, and your economy grinds to a halt. Countries have fought wars over energy access and structured foreign policy around securing supply.

Those risks are rising. Trade tensions are escalating. Geopolitical fractures are deepening. In this environment, every country is looking for alternatives.

At some point, they will look up. The sun delivers energy everywhere. 92% of countries have the potential to generate at least ten times their own energy demand from domestic renewables. With electrotech, every country can become energy independent.

If 2026 is indeed going to be a year of rising geopolitical tensions as many expect, we should expect countries to accelerate electrotech deployment as a strategic priority. Those that sow electrotech will reap sovereignty.

9. Electrotech is a tool for rapid development

For decades, development meant following the fossil path. Rich countries burned coal and oil to industrialize, and emerging economies assumed they would need to do the same. Electrotech allows them to skip that step entirely.

The fastest change is now happening in emerging markets. ASEAN leapfrogged the US in electrification in 2023. Solar deployment has surged across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In many countries, solar has gone from the smallest to the largest source of new capacity in less than a decade.

The pattern makes sense. Some 80% of the world’s population lives in the sunbelt, where solar resources are abundant and cheap. For countries building energy systems from scratch or expanding rapidly, solar plus storage offers a faster, cheaper path than fossil infrastructure. Development no longer requires a fossil-first pathway. Electrotech is becoming the foundation for growth.

We should expect more emerging market leapfrogs in 2026 as well as a pullback from fossil fuels. As solar and storage costs continue to fall, emerging economies will increasingly look to exit expensive LNG contracts in favor of domestic renewables.

10. Electrification is the geopolitical differentiator today

The world is rapidly building new electricity supply. Solar and wind capacity is being deployed at record pace. But supply alone does not determine competitive advantage. Today, the differentiator is electrification; putting that new supply to work by electrifying transport, heating, and industry.

China has grasped this. It is scaling both supply and demand simultaneously: solar farms and EVs, wind turbines and industrial electrification. This approach, which we call the electrostate model, uses domestic markets to drive down electrotech costs and improve quality, then capture export markets with superior products.

The West is deploying substantial new supply. But electrification of demand has lagged. Solar and wind without EVs, heat pumps, and industrial electrification is an incomplete strategy. As we move through 2026, the question is whether Western economies will match China’s integrated approach, or continue building only half the system.

Entering the second half of the decisive decade

For the first time, humanity can harness the power of the sun directly, at scale, and in real time. After a century of evolution, electrotech is breaking through in a decade of revolution.

The 2020s are this decisive decade. This is the decade when manufacturing reaches global scale, when uptake s-curves enter their steep ascent, and when costs cross over from more expensive to cheaper than incumbents. We have just passed cost parity for solar, batteries, and EVs. From here, the economic logic only strengthens—as do the physics and geopolitics drivers of change.

Countries and companies that recognize this shift will shape the next era of global competition. Those who resist will find themselves left behind. The revolution has its own momentum. 2026 is another year deeper into it.

For more, watch the conversation from DERVOS on Energy Dominance and the Electrostate featuring Daan Walter.

If you weren’t able to join us in person, or just want to relive the vibes, check out all the main stage sessions below.

DERVOS 2025 Keynote: Solar Pill the World with Jesse Peltan

ThunDERdome 1: Big DERs Energy

ThunDERdome 2: Permissionless DERs Wait for No One

ThunDERdome 3: Deploying and Orchestrating GWs of Distributed Capacity

ThunDERdome 4: Energy Dominance and the Electrostate

Circuit Breaker: Ocotpus Energy

Showcase 1 - From Driveway to Grid: The First Mass Market DER

Showcase 2: Permissionless DERs Showdown

Showcase 2.5: Permissionless DERs for Small Businesses

Showcase 3: Sunrun’s VPP Update

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Jigar Shah, Managing Director, Multiplier LLC

Nick Chaset, CEO, Octopus Energy US