The first seven years of The Australian Financial Review Energy and Climate Summit have run to a predictably depressing pattern: by the middle of the first morning, it seemed clear that the transition had stalled, and the problems seemed larger than progress.

But Monday’s summit brought light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a long, expensive and windy tunnel, to be sure, but there’s the outline of a plan, and signs of real progress from the likes of Daniel Westerman, chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, EnergyAustralia boss Mark Collette and Origin Energy boss Frank Calabria.