On 12 March, Palma will host the premiere of the “Mallorca Energy Summit 2026”, a high-level forum that will be attended by prominent leaders from the main hotel chains, together with representatives from energy, technology, banking and investment fund companies, the Balearic President Marga Prohens and the Mayor of Palma Jaime Martínez.
The aim is to highlight energy as a competitive advantage in the tourism sector and accelerate the energy transformation of hotels in Spain and the Caribbean. The conference, to be held at the Estadi de Son Moix, aims to connect a shared vision of the future, concrete technological solutions and financing models adapted to the new investment cycle. With no workshops or parallel formats, the event will focus solely on high-level presentations and round tables, designed to optimise executives’ time and encourage the real exchange of strategic decisions.
The first round table will bring together Gabriel Escarrer, Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, and Abel Matutes, Chairman of Palladium Hotel Group, to discuss energy, resilience and competitive advantage. This dialogue will set the strategic tone for the meeting: moving from energy costs to energy as a lever for brand, value and differentiation.
The main partner of the event, the Jenbacher brand of the INNIO Group, will contribute its experience in energy resilience in island destinations with a presentation by Andreas Eberharter, VP Product Management & Marketing of the group, who will explain energy trigeneration solutions, an efficient system that produces electricity, heat and cooling simultaneously from a single fuel source, such as natural gas or biomass, at the point of consumption, with real-life examples of plants in the Caribbean.
Throughout the day, various specialist speakers will share their expertise in renewables and energy solutions such as BESS storage, a technology that uses batteries to capture electrical energy, store it and release it when needed; or HVAC solutions for hotels, i.e. integrated heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems designed to optimise environmental comfort in buildings (temperature, humidity and air purity) while minimising energy consumption and reducing the carbon footprint.
Representatives from banks and investment funds will also participate to explain the financing criteria for energy projects. The meeting will also address Artificial Intelligence and its role in optimising energy consumption. Following the conclusions of the conference, the institutional closing ceremony will be led by the president of the regional government, Marga Prohens, who will outline the role of the Balearics in the new energy agenda.
The “Mallorca Energy Summit” was created as a commitment to real cases, verifiable figures and replicable models. According to Carlos Sáez, commercial director of Grupo Estel: “The energy transformation of the hotel sector requires less theory and more practical evidence. We want to put quantified results on the table that help to make decisions based on technical and financial criteria. The purpose of this forum is precisely to provide clarity: to share measured results, proven experiences and applicable models that will enable us to move confidently towards the decarbonisation of the hotel sector.”
The conference, organised by Grupo Estel, Borbalán and Grup Serra, was created with the aim of providing a shared space for engineering, tourism management and investment capital to define how the Spanish and Caribbean hotel industry will tackle its energy transformation by 2030. The forum thus aims to become a meeting point between engineering, tourism management and investment capital to define how the Spanish and Caribbean hotel industry will tackle its energy transformation between now and 2030.