The UK energy sector doesn’t have a strategy problem. It has a delivery crisis – and the evidence is mounting by the day.
Refineries closing. Chemical sites shutting. One third of UK refining capacity lost in a year. Import dependency rising. And the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in March 2026 – halting flows of Qatari and Emirati LNG and Persian Gulf oil – delivering the starkest possible reminder that in an unstable world, relying on overseas supply chains for the essentials of your economy is a vulnerability Britain cannot afford.
These are the stories NEW has been covering. And ELUK2026 is where the sector must answer for them.
Energy Landscape UK 2026 (ELUK2026) takes place on 3-4 November 2026 at The Kia Oval, London, themed The Energy Trilemma: Britain’s Three-Front War It Cannot Afford to Lose – a two-day reckoning for the UK’s net zero delivery, bringing together government, regulators, investors, utilities, infrastructure developers, industrial operators and digital innovators in one room, with one mission: convert ambition into action.
This is not a celebration of incremental progress. It is not another roadmap. It is the platform where the people who hold the levers of delivery face the questions the sector has spent years avoiding – and leave with named, time-bound commitments submitted directly to government through the ELUK 2026 Energy Leadership Declaration.
Across ten panels and two closing debates, delegates will confront the defining challenges of Britain’s energy transition:
- Net Zero Leadership & Political Accountability – Labour, Conservative and Reform on the same Is net zero credible, affordable and politically durable – or is the consensus fracturing beyond repair?
- Offshore Wind Delivery – AR8 outside the 2030 Target revised. Does Britain have a credible plan to close the delivery gap?
- Grid Transformation & System Integration – 739 GW in the Some projects 15 years from connection. Can grid reform and distributed energy solutions deliver in time?
- AI & Data Centres – 50 GW of applications clogging the grid Industrial opportunity or demand shock the system cannot absorb?
- Critical Minerals & Supply Chain Sovereignty – Britain meets just 6% of domestic mineral needs. Has it swapped OPEC dependency for Beijing dependency?
- Fusion & Advanced Nuclear – £2.5 billion STEP under construction. Visionary industrial leadership or moonshot that arrives too late?
- Global Clean Energy Investment Race – $2.2 trillion flowing globally. Is Britain winning its share – or losing capital to competitors with cheaper power and faster planning?
- Sovereign Power & Energy Mix – Nuclear, renewables, hydrogen, CCUS and managed fossil fuel How does Britain build genuine energy security that no geopolitical shock can break?
- Workforce & Skills – 200,000-worker structural Who actually builds the energy transition?
- Industrial Decarbonisation – One hydrogen Two clusters. Winner-takes-all in 2026. Can Britain’s steel, chemicals and cement industries decarbonise fast enough to survive?
The solutions exist. The capital is available. What is missing is the courage, coordination and urgency to deliver – and the willingness to make hard choices about what gets built, who pays and how fast.
At NEW, our mission is to inform, connect and champion the people and businesses shaping the energy industry. ELUK2026 is the forum where the most consequential energy debate of the year takes place – and where the commitments get made.
Learn more about ELUK2026: https://energiselandscape.co.uk/energy-landscape-uk-2026
Register as a delegate: https://energiselandscape.co.uk/elukdelegatebookingform
