WASHINGTON, September 16, 2026 – National Clean Energy Week started in Washington, D.C., with a debate on energy policy influenced by the following two opposing forces: the country requires more energy, and this energy must be cheap, reliable, and increasingly clean.
This year’s program celebrates the 10th anniversary of the initiative and focuses on a two-day symposium called “Policymakers Symposium,” which will take place in Convene Hamilton Square at 14th Street NW. Sessions run on September 15 and 16 with free, live-streamed admission. The Department of Energy’s event page lists the 2026 program and its Washington location.
The launch of this year takes place amidst increasingly challenging demand forecasts. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that electricity consumption will total 4,135 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026 and 4,211 billion kilowatt-hours in 2027 due to the construction of data centers and increased manufacturing. Power costs are rising fast. Consequently, supply security isn’t just an abstract concern—it’s directly driving consumer expenses.
That friction sits right at the center of the symposium’s program. Various panels are planned to discuss policy toward clean energy, infrastructure, finance, advanced geothermal, fusion, nuclear power, solar energy, storage, fuels and supply chain management. Artificial intelligence’s ever-growing thirst for electricity will also be discussed—a topic which would have seemed esoteric a decade ago but which is now at the heart of America’s energy discourse.
This program begins at 9:30 am daily with remarks from Dozier, who chairs National Clean Energy Week and serves as founding president of its organizational forum. Participants of governmental officials, members of Congress, industry leaders, and energy proponents will be attending this two-day conference.
This gathering doesn’t revolve around just one technology. This is intentional. Proponents believe that America requires an “all-of-the-above” strategy using all energy types, including renewable, nuclear, geothermal, storage, efficiency, and traditional sources where appropriate. While critics argue this broad approach is overly generous, it holds undeniable political appeal. Realistically, modern energy policy can’t rely on a single solution.
Affordability isn’t something that gets fixed overnight. This newer generation needs transmission, interconnection, permits and private funding- and each one creates a frustrating bottleneck. You can build a cheap solar farm, but it might sit idle for years waiting for grid access. Nuclear provides reliable baseload power, but building plants takes immense time and capital. There’s no magic button—just hard choices.
So financing is a key issue. One panel discussion will look at how to get private funding into U.S. energy projects on a large scale, while others will explore infrastructure, workforce training and local supply chains. All of which is relevant in communities far from Washington, D.C., where most construction and maintenance work is done locally.
According to symposium reports, fourteen states and the District of Columbia have declared their support for the week through proclamations. The latter include references to clean-energy jobs and energy production in local communities, while Alaska’s proclamation focuses on critical minerals and supply chains. The event includes a range of speakers and policy themes.
Ten years into the program, the discussion on clean energy has gotten messier- and far more urgent. That discussion has grown to include the data center, mining industry, and competitiveness of the grid along with carbon reductions.
This may well be the most telling change this week. The discussion on clean energy is not just about its environmental potential anymore. In Washington, the topic is increasingly seen as an infrastructure issue, an economic imperative, and sometimes even a matter of national resilience.
