Grid Crossroads Fall 2026
A Think Microgrid Initiative
At a pivotal moment in the history of the power grid, we're making the case that distributed energy makes the grid cheaper, safer, and more flexible, starting with a private roundtable this fall.
The agenda and invite list are still taking shape. There is room to influence both.
Think Microgrid is a membership coalition representing the microgrid industry in the policy, legislative and regulatory discussions taking place in Washington, D.C. and in state capitals across the country. We were formed in 2021 to address the barriers to microgrids embedded in legacy regulatory policy.
Our members span the full range of scale, from single homes to hyperscale data centers. What unites them is not a technology or a market segment. It is a shared problem: microgrids and on-site resources are widely treated as inferior to, or actively harmful to, the legacy centralized grid. We exist to challenge that.
On-site power, at every scale, does three things the centralized grid cannot do alone.
Microgrids are complementary to the centralized grid, uniquely capable on resilience and flexibility, and intrinsically affordable. That is the case. Someone has to make it.
The members of Think Microgrid are some of the key players in the microgrid industry working together to set the framework for microgrid adoption.
Interested in Grid Crossroads? Get In Touch.
Cameron Brooks is the Executive Director of Think Microgrid, a membership coalition that represents the microgrid industry in critical policy, legislative and regulatory discussions taking place in Washington, D.C., and at the state level across the country.
Cameron also serves as the President of E9 Insight, a research firm focused on the US utility industry and the policy landscape surrounding it. E9's clients include a wide range of technology companies, advocacy coalitions and government agencies, including the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.
Cameron founded Tolerable Planet Enterprises, an advisory firm that provides regulatory engagement and business development services, including a strong focus on developing coalitions for distributed energy technologies and open markets. He has served in executive roles with clean energy companies and non-profits, including Opus One Solutions, Tendril, Renewable Choice Energy and the Clean Energy States Alliance.
He studied Ecologic Design at Yale University and holds an MBA from Cornell. E9 and Cameron are based in Boulder, Colorado.
Get In Touch to talk about hosting.
Draft for discussion with prospective hosts
A Think Microgrid initiative. It opens with a private, invitation-only roundtable in the fall of 2026.
Estimates place more than 100GW of behind-the-meter generation as planned or in development over the next five years, equivalent to roughly a fifth of current U.S. peak load. A substantial share of new capacity is being built on the customer side of the meter.
Public discussion of that shift has so far been shaped largely by its critics. On-site power is commonly characterized either as a transitional arrangement pending adequate grid supply, or as a shadow grid assembled by unregulated firms operating in gaps in existing law. No organization presently advances a general case for on-site generation as a category. The practical consequence is a policy environment that treats the development as a risk to be contained rather than a resource to be integrated.
Grid Crossroads is a Think Microgrid initiative to make that case. It is not a single meeting but a body of work, and it opens with a private roundtable in the fall of 2026 — a small group of members and partners, convened to bring the companies developing on-site power into sustained discussion with those working on the policy and market questions the technology raises.
We anticipate two outputs from that first roundtable:
The intention is that participants leave with a document they can cite and to which they have contributed. The invitation list is developed jointly with the hosts.
Grid Crossroads is funded by its founding hosts, who take an active part in designing and organizing the first roundtable, supported by Think Microgrid members and staff. Commitments are already in hand from within the Think Microgrid membership, and further host positions remain open.