Innovation Zero 2025 - A Herald Of Change

I watch the eyes scan the office

It was clear someone, somewhere, had an idea. The eyes alighted on me and turned into a smile. A chat and a cup of coffee later and I found myself in line to cover ‘Innovation Zero’, London’s largest conference on innovation in the energy sector.  “I haven’t covered an energy conference before”, I protested, “perfect”, came the reply, “we need a fresh perspective”.  I was on my way.

With over 15,000 attendees and 450 speakers, Innovation Zero is the UK’s largest annual gathering dedicated to climate solutions and green technology. 2025 showed no sign of disappointing. Across the two days, Olympia was abuzz with talks, panels, working groups and exhibitions. Innovators breathlessly pitched their ideas; some even roamed the arena in capes donned with litter. There was a lot to see.

What caught my fresh and curious eye? 

Well, the first and most evident theme was “AI”, which seemed to punctuate every conversation at the event. No real surprise perhaps, the conversation “what impact will AI have on society?”, has become almost zeitgeist-defining. 

At Innovation Zero, however, the conversation took a different track, that of energy consumption. In the UK, the data centre market is set to nearly double its power requirements by 2033, growing from 2.59GW to 4.75GW, a sign of both digital demand and investor confidence. With the introduction of wide-scale AI, the power usage of a standard data centre rack is due to increase from 2-3kW to 100-300kW, with Nvidia even preparing for demand as high as 600kW per rack. It is a staggering change in performance and illustrates how hungry the new technology is for both processing and electrical power. One panelist noted that by 2050 AI data usage could equal that of the entire business sector today, a view supported by the chair of the EDF panel on infrastructure.

The question posed by many, from the energy companies to automotive manufacturers, was how can the government and data centre operators work together to meet this rapid growth in a green way? Greater efficiency and thermal heat recovery systems were much in evidence, but one idea which caught the imagination of many was tying the expansion of data centres to the introduction of new modular nuclear reactors. The idea being to deliver uninterruptable power on site and remove the dependency on strained grid infrastructure; more on which in a moment.

Before that, however, the second big theme was the need for a clearer industrial strategy

It’s clear that the UK must be better at integrating its approach to energy planning by balancing both mega-scale and modular strategies to deliver clean power. This debate was sparked by Chris Stark and Adair Turner on the main stage and continued in detail at the panel titled “Why Megaprojects Matter” facilitated by Oaklin’s own energy sector lead Ben Parsons. Panellists discussed whether we are entering a new era of scale in energy infrastructure and what it will take to deliver at such magnitude. They explored the potential of megaprojects such as undersea cables to offer transformative capacity, whilst pointing to the slow pace of grid connections and to geopolitical shocks as a sign of the current system’s fragility and exposure to input cost volatility.

In contrast, modular solutions such as smart grid technology, community-based energy models and zonal pricing, clearly favoured by Octopus Energy, were heralded as more flexible and affordable alternatives. This concept of modularity extended beyond the panel to the exhibitors, where some of the most compelling examples included small modular reactor (SMR) solutions, our standout favourite being Zeus, NANO’s SMR on a lorry!

Equally prevalent were conversations about green skills, or more correctly, the absence of them. Compared to last year, there appeared to have been an evolution from “what is innovation” to “how could it be implemented”? Focus areas such as EV battery diagnostics, heat pump installations and smart system integration were present in a wide range of guises.

Intrigued, I attended the green skills working group session

This focused on improving young people’s understanding of what green skills are and the positive impact of intervening at an earlier stage in their education to encourage students into low-carbon jobs. There was even some discussion about how to encourage businesses to support a green skills talent pipeline. Some argued in favour of offering under-represented students grants to assist their ‘green studies’ through either university or apprenticeships. Similar attention was given to the importance of retaining and upskilling the current workforce with many advocating for the government’s skills passport. It was clear from the discussions that 725,000 low-carbon jobs are needed by 2030. The urgency to upskill and recruit individuals is clear, but the question remained: Are we doing enough, at the pace required, to close the green skills gap?

One can’t ask such questions without straying into policy and politics, particularly on the role of public engagement in policy formulation

BBC journalist, Roger Harrabin, opened the main stage policy panel by stating “the world is politically complicated” – no arguments there. In turn, however, all on Roger’s panel confirmed a general agreement that there is growing confidence that most people do care about the environment.

The challenge then is defining the policies that are needed and building the public engagement to bring all on the decarbonisation journey. Chris Stark described 2025 as the year of “difficult policy formation”, which he declared would be followed by four years of public engagement. Can the government show the public the tangible benefits they stand to gain from supporting the transition to net zero? The benefits were quickly outlined, energy security, lower bills, cleaner air and warmer homes, but the road to widespread public support is still undefined.

A key factor in bringing about such change is the hardy perennial of UK electricity pricing

It was widely agreed that the UK persists in having the largest ‘spark gap’ in Europe, (the difference in price between a unit of gas energy and the equivalent unit of electrical energy).

There was widespread agreement that this is simply not sustainable and that electricity prices must come down compared to gas, if there is to be a realistic incentive to drive transition at scale and at pace. When would this happen? We got nothing more than “soon”; a statement met by a background rumble of comments that the answer has been “soon” for rather too long. Just clear was a consensus that we don’t require a single ‘top down’ design for the country. Instead, we need flexibility and community solutions, what one panellist called ‘scale-flex’, or the ability to scale solutions quickly, utilising the latest technologies, but adapting them extensively to suit different regional and market conditions. The linear ‘source to consumption’ value chains of the fossil fuel industry is not the solution of even the near future. Communities will generate power locally; they will share networks of heat and grid scale storage and sell, as well as buy, power from grid scale operators. The strong view was that we cannot afford to be trapped in old fashioned thinking. Achieving net zero will rely on consistent, enabling policy but also on innovative grid solutions and on building public trust and engagement.

I would be remiss if I overlooked the role of risk and finance at Innovation Zero. A surprising number of investors were to be seen scouring the stands this year, which made me wonder whether they had been inspired by Martin Wolf’s Financial Times article arguing that more investment, through innovation, is a necessary condition for faster growth. This sentiment was shared by John Flint, CEO of the National Wealth Fund, who opened day one of the event stating that the UK needs to expand its appetite for risk if it is to grow in a green way. Fortune, it would seem, still favours the brave.  Despite the obvious presence of investors and lots of innovative ideas to invest in, many I spoke to reported a sense hesitancy among the investors who attended. “Not quite ready” was the sense reported by many. 

Closing Remarks

So, investor interest was evident, but discussions revealed a persistent challenge when aligning innovations with genuine investor confidence. What would turn that tide? What strategies would boost shareholder confidence in energy innovation and encourage greater capital allocation? Ideas I heard included providing investors with more accurate data to track asset performance and support decision making, funding of home upgrades through blended finance options like salary sacrifice and pension schemes or driving innovation via commercial contracts such as the Strategic Innovation Fund.

My other observation was that adding “AI” to any pitch also seems to spark interest, regardless of the actual concept. Overall, Innovation Zero 2025 showcased an abundance of ideas, promising technologies and hinted at the availability of capital and the prospect of change.

Despite all the buzz and spectacle, I was left with a sense of disappointment, of something being a bit “off”. I think it hinges on that word, “hint”.  Over the two days, innovators proudly presented their breakthrough designs, investors searched hesitatingly for viable returns, and panellists spoke of macro-economic headwinds, but no one spoke of progress.

The themes I have raised, like AI and data, industrial strategy, green skills, public engagement, policy certainty and risk and finance, all seem entirely natural given the rapidly evolving energy transition landscape and the geopolitical conditions, but all were presented as challenges ahead, not as work in progress.  I was left thinking that Innovation Zero was a microcosm of society today, where it seems that interest is offset by concerns, optimism checked by cynicism, ambition reined in by pragmatism. The event mirrored the broader challenges we as society face, particularly the disconnect between policymakers, large organisations, investors and innovators. The real opportunity, and the thing that would drive the adoption of innovation, would be to close these divides and harness the ambition and creativity so evidently on display. Innovation Zero 2025 was a success at heralding the opportunities of the future, but I hope that Innovation Zero 2026 can prove to be a showcase of how that innovative future is being realised.  That really would be exciting.