Recap: Arkansas Advanced Energy’s emPOWER Arkansas Conference & Expo 2026
This week the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association (AAEA) and Arkansas Advanced Energy Foundation (AAEF) hosted its annual emPOWER Arkansas Conference & Expo at Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock. This year's theme, "Generating Solutions to Meet Demand," reflected the critical conversations taking place across Arkansas as our state works to meet growing energy needs while maintaining affordability, reliability, and economic competitiveness. The conference brought together business and community leaders, policymakers, regulators, economic developers, educators, and other key stakeholders for a full day of networking and discussions focused on the future of energy in Arkansas.
Arkansas’s energy landscape is changing quickly. Electricity demand is rising, major new investments are coming to the state, and decisions being made today about generation, transmission, affordability, workforce, property rights and policy will shape Arkansas for years to come.
Those challenges and the opportunities set the stage for emPOWER Arkansas 2026. Rather than filling the agenda with traditional presentations and breakout sessions, we brought energy leaders, businesses, policymakers, regulators, economic developers and community voices into the same room for a day of candid conversation and collaborative problem-solving.
During the keynote session, “The Political Forecast,” state legislators joined Talk Business & Politics’ Roby Brock to discuss a point of broad agreement: Arkansas will need more power, but how the state meets that demand is far more complicated. From an “all-of-the-above” energy mix and emerging technologies to affordability, infrastructure and local concerns, the conversation highlighted the interconnected choices facing policymakers as Arkansas prepares for continued growth and the 2027 legislative session. Discussion also focused on recent backlash for the Generating Arkansas Jobs Act (GAJA) passed during the 2025 legislative session, and the possibility of revisiting or amending in 2027 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Times).
The goal wasn’t to leave with every challenge solved. It was to better understand the issues, hear different perspectives, ask better questions, and identify where we can make progress together.
And across every conversation, one message became clear: meeting Arkansas’s growing energy needs will require more than simply generating more electricity.
It will require thoughtful planning, significant investment in generation and transmission, a skilled workforce, constructive partnerships with communities, an honest conversation about affordability and a policy and regulatory environment capable of keeping pace with change.
Thank you to our sponsors Google (Presenting Sponsor), Connected Grid Initiative, Southern Renewable Energy Association, The Stitt Group, and A-1 LED.
Photography by Reynardo Marks
Opening Reception, with live music by Cliff & Susan
Opening Session: “Energy Outlook” with Kenneth Dubin (U.S. Energy Information Administration), Simon Mahan (Southern Renewable Energy Association), and April Ambrose (Arkansas Advanced Energy)
“Meeting the Demand” with Rachel Wilson (Google), Gary Moody (Connected Grid Initiative), David Giesige (Northwest Arkansas Council), Joel Gordon (Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions)
Keynote: “The Political Forecast” with Roby Brock (Talk Business & Politics), Arkansas Senator Clint Penzo, Arkansas Senator Mark Johnson, Arkansas Representative Aaron Pilkington
“Powering Prosperity” with Christopher Crane (Arkansas Economic Development Commission), Dr. Christopher Heigle (Arkansas Northeastern College), and Ebony Mitchell (Arkansas Advanced Energy)
Not Pictured: “The Affordability Equation” with Dr. Meredith Jennings (Houston Advanced Research Center), Mollie Palmer (Heart of Arkansas United Way), April Ambrose (Arkansas Advanced Energy), Jonathon Rasburry (Arkansas Advanced Energy), Wally Nixon (Arkansas Public Service Commission)