CESI President Guido Bortoni at “The Next Watt Dialogue” in Abu Dhabi 

On January 14, 2026, CESI President Guido Bortoni participated as a speaker in The Next Watt Dialogue: Integrating Clean Power at Scale, an invitation‑only roundtable held at ADNEC during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2026.

The event, organized by Masdar, gathered CEOs, technology innovators, renewable and network developers to discuss how to accelerate the shift from record‑low renewable costs to system‑ready clean power capable of supporting large‑scale, reliable and affordable electricity systems.
Prominent participants included Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi (CEO, Masdar) and senior partners from McKinsey & Company, who moderated the dialogue.

In his speech Bortoni, by taking stock of the various experiences in electrical systems acquired by CESI in many geographical regions worldwide, provided a European perspective, stressing that the continent now operates in a highly complex investment environment marked by volatility, risk aversion, and increasing renewable penetration.

He highlighted three strategic priorities for accelerating the clean‑energy transition towards a newly-conceived clean energy  “addition”:

• Clear and effective incentive schemes to make the market design better suited for investments , including well‑designed two‑way Contracts for Difference (CfDs) and more advanced Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) that integrate storage and flexibility.
• Robust infrastructures—modern grids, interconnections, storage systems, digitalization—which serve as a precondition to realize the backbone of system reliability.
• Coordinated system integration, enabling renewables to align with demand through flexible loads and innovative technologies.

He also recalled Europe’s challenge: technology, design, system engineering, and the capability to develop advanced solutions that support the price-competitive clean‑energy addition.