In April our CEO, Louise Hurll visited Washington DC to attend the EXIM Conference and the SAFE Summit, with various meetings, including at the Australian embassy in DC.
A few themes stood out at the conferences that tend to resonate for Australia too:
1. AI is the space race of our time and they’re serious about it.
The scale and speed of data centre deployment is fundamentally reshaping electricity demand and the need for fast rollout and connection of supply.
Which means an energy mix that includes quick to deploy and low LCOE solar.
2. Policy clarity is everything
What came through consistently is the need for:
– Long-term, durable policy frameworks, and
– Strong, credible demand signals
These help to derisk and unlock private capital.
3. Supply chains are national security.
Traceability, transparency, and control over critical inputs, particularly across energy, AI and defense supply chains are now firmly viewed through a national security lens.
The era of assuming global supply chains work “just in time” is being replaced with a “just in case” mentality.
Resilience, diversification, and trusted partners are the new norm.
4. And finally reindustrialisation, brings long term, secure and well paid jobs for our kids that help us chip away at our cost of living crisis.