20/11/2025
Energy Salon XXI: Urban Power Series
Last night at Café Museum in Vienna, Founder
Olha Bosak opened the new Energy Salon XXI: Urban Power Series with insights on Europe’s shifting energy landscape and the role of cities.
She reflected on the origins of Energy Salon XXI, created in Ukraine as a platform for open, cross-sector dialogue, and relaunched last year in Vienna while she chaired the energy panel “Turning Energy Challenges into Energy Opportunities” at the National Bank of Austria.
“Today, I am especially pleased to bring this initiative to Café Museum, where my energy-themed paintings are on display. Energy Salon XXI has now moved from Kyiv — a global symbol of energy resilience — to Vienna, a city recognised for its quality of life, systems thinking, and responsible urban governance.”
The Era of Electricity is accelerating, but grids and investment flows are not keeping pace. Electrification is accelerating across AI, data centres, mobility, heating, and industry. Demand is rising faster than infrastructure, and transmission remains the critical bottleneck. Global investments in generation now near USD 1 trillion annually — yet grid investments lag far behind, widening the gap and slowing decarbonization.
Cities are electrifying rapidly, digital infrastructure is scaling, and mobility and heating are shifting to electricity — yet grids are struggling to keep up. This gap represents both the challenge and the opportunity ahead.
Olha Bosak highlighted the need to align national, regional, and urban strategies, noting that cities are where ambition meets implementation.
“This is why the Energy Salon XXI: Urban Power Series matters — it brings these layers together at eye level, across disciplines, in one room.”
The evening concluded with a dialogue around key questions: where to invest first, how to collaborate across sectors, and which partnerships are still missing.
