2026 Agenda

Europe is adding record levels of solar, but critical storage buildout is lagging behind. As curtailment risk rises and flexibility markets mature unevenly, what will it take to close the storage gap? Examine the economics, regulation, and capital flows needed to scale storage at pace with solar deployment.

• What’s holding back deployment – policy, permitting, or financing?
• How hybrid solar+storage projects stack up against standalone BESS in value creation.
• Investor perspective: what derisks storage as a mainstream asset class?

This session examines how a utility-scale solar project retrofitted or built with co-located battery storage to address curtailment, price cannibalisation, and grid constraints performs. The focus is on what changed financially and operationally once storage was added, and what the asset owner would do differently today.

• Why storage was added?
• Curtailment exposure, capture price erosion, or grid compliance requirements
• How the revenue stack changed: Energy shifting, ancillary services, downside protection, and volatility reduction
• Capital and performance outcomes: Capex uplift, IRR impact, payback period, and lessons for future hybrid projects

The two-gate grid connection reform has fundamentally changed development timelines and risk profiles, AR7 is reshaping the competitive landscape for contracted revenues, and subsidy-free solar is now the norm for projects outside the CfD framework.

• How the two-gate grid queue process is reshaping project timelines, connection risk and development strategy
• AR7: what the latest CfD allocation round means for solar and storage pipelines, strike prices and bankability
• Co-location with BESS in the UK: what Capacity Market, balancing mechanism and ancillary service revenues are actually delivering
• Planning reform, community acceptance and the route to consent for large-scale projects in a constrained land market

European solar and storage projects now operate in markets defined by price cannibalisation, negative pricing, curtailment, and frequent market intervention. This panel examines how developers, investors, and lenders are structuring revenue and risk in power markets where volatility is structural, not cyclical.

• Corporate PPAs, utility PPAs, CfDs, floors, collars, and hybrid revenue stacks and where each breaks down
• Managing exposure to negative prices, curtailment, capture rate erosion, and congestion
• What banks and equity now require to underwrite projects in high-renewables systems

Grid congestion, redispatch costs, negative pricing hours and a rapidly evolving regulatory framework have made underwriting harder even as the market grows. Meanwhile, the accelerating phase-out of coal and rising industrial power demand are creating genuine long-term opportunity for hybrid assets. This roundtable examines the realities of the German market in 2026 and what the path to 2030 looks like.

• Grid congestion, redispatch exposure and how developers are pricing and managing curtailment risk across German regions
• The German BESS market: what capacity market, FCR, aFRR and wholesale arbitrage revenues are delivering today
• How negative pricing hours are reshaping PPA structures, capture rates and merchant exposure in Germany
• Permitting reform and the EEG framework, what has changed and where the pipeline is actually moving
• What international IPPs and investors need to understand before scaling German solar and storage exposure

As Europe’s first generation of large solar projects begins to reach repowering and replacement cycles, recycling has moved from a niche topic to a procurement and compliance priority. EU regulation already places panels under the WEEE framework with producer responsibility obligations, while upcoming policy changes and circular economy initiatives are pushing the industry toward higher material recovery, traceability, and design-for-recycling standards. At the same time, economics remain challenging due to logistics costs, limited processing capacity, and immature secondary material markets

• How project owners plan for repowering, decommissioning, and recycling obligations across the asset lifecycle
• The role of recycling technology and equipment in improving recovery rates for glass, silicon, and critical metals
• Regulation, extended producer responsibility, and what compliance means in practice for developers and EPCs
• Reverse logistics, cross-border waste movement, and scaling recycling capacity across Europe
• Design for circularity, material traceability, and how manufacturing choices affect end-of-life outcomes
• Where the economics work today and what must change to make recycling commercially sustainable

Poland has delivered record solar capacity, but speed has created new structural pressures. Grid queues, compressing capture rates, and a regulatory framework struggling to keep pace are reshaping the investment case. This roundtable examines the realities of developing, financing, and operating solar and storage in Poland right now — and what the next three years actually look like.

• How grid queue reality differs from headline reform — where usable capacity exists and where it does not
• Auction framework evolution and what the next procurement cycle means for project pipelines
• Whether Poland’s merchant-heavy market structure remains viable as solar penetration rises
• What co-located storage is actually delivering in revenue and grid compliance terms
• Key considerations for international investors and IPPs evaluating or scaling their Polish exposure

As co-located solar and storage projects scale across Europe, developers are navigating vastly different market rules, grid behaviours, and revenue opportunities. This session explores how to optimise hybrid project design and operation in the real world, practical strategies for constraint management, and how co-location supports risk diversification and better utilisation of existing assets.

• How market rules shape dispatch strategy and revenue stacking across countries
• Using storage to manage constraints, curtailment, and grid compliance in real time
• Where co-location delivers value and where it fails to justify added complexity

Greece offers some of Europe’s strongest solar resources and has attracted significant developer interest but translating irradiation into investable projects remains harder than the resource alone would suggest. Grid constraints, island interconnection complexity, permitting bottlenecks and an evolving regulatory framework have slowed deployment relative to potential. Meanwhile, the country’s ambitious renewable energy targets and growing appetite for storage are creating real opportunity for developers who understand the market. This roundtable examines where Greece stands in 2026 and what it takes to get projects built and financed.

• Where grid capacity exists and where interconnection remains the binding constraint
• How Greece’s auction framework and regulatory environment are evolving and what the next procurement cycle looks like
• What ancillary services, island grid stabilisation and hybrid revenues are delivering to solar and storage investors
• Permitting timelines, land tenure complexity and environmental consenting in a market where delays remain

As solar portfolios become increasingly digital – via remote monitoring, SCADA integration, inverter connectivity, and third-party data platforms – the risk profile for asset managers is changing fast. Cyber incidents now have the potential to impair performance, disrupt revenue, compromise data integrity, and trigger contractual or regulatory liabilities.

How are asset managers strengthening operational resilience, managing vendor-related cyber risks, and ensuring secure, reliable plant performance across diverse and maturing portfolios?

Spain has led Europe’s solar buildout — but scale has created its own problems. Capture rate erosion, negative pricing hours and grid congestion in key corridors are compressing returns on assets that looked very different at the point of investment. Meanwhile, the pipeline of hybrid solar and storage projects is growing fast as developers respond to the new market reality. This roundtable examines what operating and investing in Spanish solar and storage actually looks like in 2026.

• Capture rate erosion, negative pricing and how Spanish developers are restructuring revenue models to protect returns
• Grid congestion by corridor — where connection capacity exists and where curtailment risk is now structural
• BESS opportunity in Spain — what merchant, ancillary service and capacity revenues are delivering today
• PPA market evolution — what Spanish corporates and utilities are signing and where structures are breaking down
• Permitting reform, land availability and what the next wave of Spanish hybrid development actually looks like

In 2025 we saw negative prices, curtailment, manufacturing risk, and policy instability which all made underwriting harder across the full capital stack. This session examines how debt providers, equity investors, and hybrid capital structures are adapting and what projects must now demonstrate to get financed.

• What has changed in credit modelling: capture rates, P90 assumptions, and grid risk?
• How the debt-equity split is shifting as lenders tighten and sponsors absorb more first-loss risk
• Which revenue structures (tolls, CfDs, floors, hybrid stacks) are moving transactions and which are stalling them?
• Storage: how co-location changes bankability and credit metrics
• Where institutional capital is concentrating and what it has stopped backing

Italy is one of Europe’s most active solar and storage markets right now — but also one of its most complex. MACSE auctions have created a contracted revenue framework for storage, but grid congestion between north and south, permitting bottlenecks and a rapidly shifting regulatory environment mean that execution risk remains high. This roundtable examines the Italian market in granular detail for developers, investors and asset managers actively operating or considering entry.

• MACSE auction outcomes, contracted storage revenues and what they mean for project financing and bankability
• Grid congestion between north and south Italy — where connection capacity exists and where it does not
• Solar-plus-storage economics in Italy — merchant exposure, capacity payments and revenue stacking in practice
• Permitting reform, community acceptance and the land constraint challenge facing large-scale developers
• What international IPPs and investors need to understand about the Italian market before scaling exposure

• The current state of grid reinforcement, digitalisation, and flexibility programmes across Europe
• The UK example of the impact of the new two-gate grid queue process on developers
• How TSOs and DSOs are changing connection rules, queue management, and access to capacity
• Where congestion, curtailment, and redispatch remain structural
• How storage is being positioned as a system tool rather than an optional add on

Romania has emerged as one of Central and Eastern Europe’s most active solar markets, with a strong pipeline of utility-scale projects and growing investor appetite. But grid infrastructure has not kept pace with ambition — connection queues are long, TSO capacity is uneven, and permitting timelines remain unpredictable. This roundtable examines where Romania genuinely stands in 2026 and what it takes to get projects across the line.

• Grid connection reality in Romania — which regions have usable capacity and where the queue is effectively closed
• How Romania’s regulatory and auction framework is evolving and what the next procurement cycle looks like
• Storage opportunity in Romania — what the market is delivering today and where the revenue case is building
• Permitting timelines, land availability and the practical challenges of delivering projects in Romania’s regulatory environment
• What international developers and funds need to understand about Romanian offtake structures and bankability

• A practical toolkit of PPA structures that work in 2026
• Red flags that signal unbankable or fragile offtake
• Clear guidance on where flexibility improves deal closure
• A sharper view of what corporates will sign and why

Bulgaria has attracted growing developer interest on the back of strong solar resources, relatively low land costs and an improving regulatory environment. But the market remains at an early stage of maturity — grid infrastructure is limited, the regulatory framework is still evolving, and financing local projects requires a nuanced understanding of risk that many international investors are still developing. This roundtable examines Bulgaria’s genuine opportunity and its structural constraints.

• Grid access reality in Bulgaria — where connection capacity exists, where it does not, and how the TSO is responding
• Regulatory evolution and what Bulgaria’s renewable energy framework means for project pipelines and revenue certainty
• How international developers and investors are structuring and financing Bulgarian solar projects in 2026
• Storage opportunity in Bulgaria — where the revenue case is emerging and what the market needs to unlock deployment
• Land availability, permitting complexity and community acceptance in a market with limited large-scale solar precedent

Extreme weather events – from heatwaves to hailstorms – are becoming a major operational and financial risk for solar portfolios across Europe.

How can developers, asset owners, manufacturers, and insurers work together to build and operate climate-resilient projects? From design and component choice to post-damage assessment and insurance claims, identify best practices to reduce exposure and accelerate recovery.

• Understand how climate risk is evolving across Europe’s solar regions
• Learn what can be done during development and operations to mitigate extreme-weather impacts
• Explore how insurers and financiers assess weather-related risk

Ireland has long been a wind-first market — but utility-scale solar is now firmly on the agenda, and co-located storage is emerging as a critical tool for managing one of Europe’s most constrained grids. EirGrid’s system non-synchronous penetration limits, lengthy connection timelines and an evolving auction framework create a distinctive set of challenges and opportunities for developers and investors. This roundtable examines what the Irish market actually looks like for solar and storage in 2026.

• EirGrid’s SNSP limits and system constraints — how they shape solar and storage development and dispatch strategy
• The Irish auction framework — what RESS and LRAS have delivered and what the next procurement cycle looks like
• Co-located solar and storage in Ireland — what grid services, capacity payments and energy arbitrage are delivering
• Connection timelines, planning reform and the practical challenges of developing large-scale projects in Ireland
• What international developers and investors need to understand about Irish offtake, revenue structures and bankability