Innovation Labs: Solving the Five Risks Holding Back European Solar and Storage

Synopsis

Five parallel, closed-door innovation labs. Each lab tackles one critical risk facing utility-scale solar and storage in Europe. These are working sessions focused on constraints, trade-offs, and practical solutions, not deal pitching or generic networking. Participants choose one lab and stay for the full session. Discussions last for 45 minutes, then each lab will provide clear feedback to the rest of the audience.

Lab 1. Grid Realities
Congestion, curtailment, connection queues, and voltage control
What developers and asset owners are doing when the grid will not cooperate
Output: A short list of grid strategies that work now, and those that no longer do

Lab 2. Revenue Under Stress Lab
Negative prices, capture rate erosion, and merchant exposure
How projects survive sustained volatility
Output: The revenue structures still getting financed in 2026

Lab 3. Permitting and Delivery Lab
Permitting delays, local opposition, and timeline risk
How projects actually get unstuck
Output: Tactics that shorten delivery cycles in hard jurisdictions

Lab 4. Hybrid Reality Lab
Where solar plus storage protects value and where it fails
Dispatch conflicts, operational limits, and retrofit risks
Output: Clear criteria for when co-location makes sense

Lab 5. Capital Discipline Lab
Refinancing pressure, portfolio churn, and investor fatigue
What capital is walking away from and why
Output: What projects must prove to stay investable