Before dawn, on the slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes, a woman walks through the mist to gather the firewood that will light her household stove. Thousands of kilometres away, in a control centre in southern Brazil, a technical team monitors in real time as an artificial intelligence algorithm optimises the output of a wind farm. Two different scenes, two distant realities, yet connected by the same invisible thread: energy.
For decades, we have been told that Latin America and the Caribbean is a region of “enormous energy potential”. Yet potential that does not translate into infrastructure, jobs and well-being is little more than an appealing adjective. The real challenge is not simply to determine where tomorrow’s electricity will come from, but to decide what kind of society we can build with it.
The global energy map is no longer drawn by climate targets alone. Energy now shapes corporate competitiveness, national security, urban resilience and the ability to attract investment. Meeting this new reality requires moving beyond fragmented responses.
Against this backdrop, the Dominican Republic is opening its doors to host OLACDE’s 11th Energy Week, co-organised with the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Bringing this conversation to Santo Domingo allows us to consider the region’s energy future from the very heart of the Caribbean, while recognising the particular weight of its challenges and opportunities. The objective is not to accumulate speeches, but to bring together, around the same table, the authorities, businesses and institutions responsible for the sector’s most consequential decisions.
That transformation must begin by moving beyond solutions designed behind a desk. The energy transition cannot be conceived for new generations without being built with them. That is why the academic event Connecting Minds, Energising the Future and the 2nd Youth Meeting will connect university research with high-level decision-making.
At the political and technical heart of this effort is OLACDE’s 56th Meeting of Ministers, where the region’s highest energy authorities will confront an uncomfortable truth: regional integration is not built with transmission lines or gas pipelines alone. It also requires the technical and political commitment of 27 Member Countries, clear rules and common criteria capable of turning national ambitions into shared financing and infrastructure.
But governments cannot move forward alone. In a strategic high-level forum, the 4th Public-Private Dialogue of OLACDE’s Business Council will bring regulatory certainty face to face with the financing required to turn ambitious goals for energy storage, smart grids and hydrocarbons into viable, bankable projects. Meanwhile, the 2026 OLACDE Energy Excellence Awards will serve as a reminder that the transition is not an abstract promise for tomorrow, but a series of tangible solutions already transforming lives across the region.
From grid optimisation to community development, the Caribbean will bring together political resolve, technical precision and financial certainty. The challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean is no longer to proclaim its potential, but to connect that potential with the realities of its people. That is the commitment of this Energy Week.
