The smarter E Podcast

Germany’s utility-scale battery deployment is hitting an inflection point.

After years of projects piling up in development pipelines, utility-scale storage is arriving at gigawatt scale – just as Germany’s huge solar fleet drives electricity prices towards zero, or below, during sunny hours.

For batteries that can shift that power into higher-priced periods, the opportunity is enormous.

Host Jonathan Gifford speaks with Thaddäus Kreisig, Principal at Aurora Energy Research, about Germany’s forming battery boom – and how developers are building revenue stacks to make projects viable.

The shift is striking: more than two-thirds of solar developers recently surveyed by Aurora said every project they plan to deploy will be co-located with a battery system. Falling battery-system equipment costs are strengthening the business case, while arbitrage, ancillary services, EEG revenues, and new financing models are opening up ways in which battery energy storage systems can pay off.

But grid constraints remain a major hurdle. Flexible connection agreements can restrict when batteries charge and discharge – limiting revenues, even as energy storage could help resolve the German energy market’s pricing peaks and troughs.

In short, Germany’s massive solar fleet has created both the need and the opportunity for batteries. And energy storage is rapidly shifting from optional extra to essential infrastructure – but the route-to-market for projects certainly promises to be an interesting ride.

✉️ Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach us at podcast@thesmartere.com

The Dunkelflaute has become one of the most persistent arguments against a fully renewable energy system. When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, where is our energy supposed to come from?

Detailed new modeling from Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE suggests these “dark doldrums” are a challenge – but should not be enough to halt the energy transition. The bigger challenge to be overcome is how the flexibility needed to manage low-renewable energy periods can be embedded into the country’s energy system.

Recorded at The smarter E Europe 2026 in Munich, host Jonathan Gifford speaks with Fraunhofer ISE senior scientist Charlotte Senkpiel about what it would take for Germany to reach climate neutrality with wind and solar at the heart of its energy system. And the result is not only good for the climate, it’s economically viable.

The outcome of the Fraunhofer ISE study goes well beyond simply building more renewables. Batteries, electric vehicles, flexible demand, strengthened and smarter grids, international interconnectors, and dispatchable backup all have roles to play – while electrification dramatically reduces Germany’s dependence on fossil-fuel imports.

And when prolonged periods of low wind and solar do arrive? The modeling shows how batteries, demand flexibility, electricity imports, and a limited use of hydrogen or synthetic-fuelled generation can work together to keep the system running.

In the second part of the podcast, Global Solar Council CEO Sonia Dunlop joins the episode to discuss the push to unlock agrivoltaics and rooftop solar worldwide – and why she believes a near-term slowdown in global PV deployment doesn’t change solar’s mid-term trajectory.

What the episode crystallizes: a 24/7 renewable energy system is about building an energy system flexible enough to handle the variability of wind and solar, and how it’s cheaper to do so.

✉️ Questions, comments or suggestions? Reach us at podcast@thesmartere.com

Despite claims that the energy transition is losing momentum, solar and battery deployment continues to run ahead of forecasts – profoundly impacting electricity markets and the wider global energy system.

Recorded at The smarter E Europe 2026 in Munich, host Jonathan Gifford is joined by Jarand Rystad, founder and CEO of energy analysts Rystad Energy, to examine where the transition stands today. Rystad explains why solar has consistently outpaced forecasts and how mass production, aggressive cost reduction, and rapid battery-technology deployment are driving continued expansion.

But alongside the upside, the conversation turns to one of solar's biggest challenges: falling capture prices as abundant midday PV generation pushes down the value of electricity during daylight hours. Rystad argues that accelerating battery deployment is helping to address this imbalance, shifting excess generation, and ultimately making space for even more renewables.

The conversation also explores how storage business models are evolving, the prospects for European solar manufacturing and next-generation perovskite technologies, and whether energy-security concerns could further accelerate the electrification of transportation.

Together, these trends point to solar and batteries increasingly working in tandem to create a cheaper, flexible, and electrified energy system.

✉️ Questions or feedback? Write to us at podcast@thesmartere.com

An increasing number of solar marketplaces have entered a new phase – one where achieving strong, ongoing installation rates depends heavily on system flexibility. Recorded live at The smarter E Europe 2026 in Munich, this episode of pod brings together two conversations that examine how solar marketplaces are changing in the face of this new reality, which includes falling capture prices and the rapid rise of battery energy storage.

Host Jonathan Gifford is first joined by Edurne Zoco, Executive Director of Clean Technologies and Supply Chain at S&P Global, for a wide-ranging look at the major trends in global solar in 2026. Zoco explains why a temporary slowdown in installations masks a future continued growth trajectory, how batteries are becoming indispensable as solar penetration increases, and why the distributed market segment is gaining momentum across Europe.

The episode then shifts to Brazil with Barbara Rubim, recently elected President of AB Solar, who outlines the obstacles facing what was one of the world's fastest-growing solar markets. Rubin reflects on Brazil's rapid expansion to nearly 70 GW of installed capacity, the growing impact of renewable-energy curtailment, and the pivotal role that the country's first large-scale storage auctions could play in unlocking the next wave of development.

Taken together, these conversations reveal the urgency of a shift towards energy storage, and how smarter market design and technologies will allow that storage to deliver greater value and flexibility across electricity networks.

✉️ Questions or feedback? Write to us at podcast@thesmartere.com

Innovation in solar business models and technology is front-and-center on this episode of The smarter E Podcast. Featuring two leaders from the U.S. solar industry, it explores how innovation across the solar value chain is taking the global energy transition in new directions. Recorded live at The smarter E Europe 2026 in Munich, host Jonathan Gifford speaks with two executives from companies that represent very different stages of the industry's evolution: one scaling and redefining an established global business, the other pushing a new generation of solar technology toward commercial reality.

First, Howard Wenger, President of Nextpower, discusses the company's rapid transformation from a solar tracker specialist into a provider of integrated utility-scale solar and energy storage platforms. Following a series of strategic acquisitions – most recently the German mounting system manufacturer Zimmermann and battery storage integrator Prevalon – Wenger explains why combining hardware, software, and storage is becoming essential for utility-scale renewable energy. He also shares insights into Europe's growing importance for the company, the role of battery storage in addressing negative electricity prices and data centre demand, and why customer-focused innovation remains central to Nextpower's expansion strategy.

The conversation then turns to the future of photovoltaic cell-and-module technology with Aaron Thurlow, Chief Commercial Officer at Caelux. Thurlow explains how the company's perovskite-on-glass approach could accelerate commercial adoption by augmenting existing silicon module production lines rather than replacing them. He discusses the pathway from pilot production to scale manufacturing, the potential for significant efficiency gains, and why perovskites could unlock new opportunities not only for terrestrial solar but also for space applications. The discussion also tackles one of PV-perovskite technology’s biggest questions: long-term durability and why confidence is growing and commercial-scale deployment drawing closer.

Together, these conversations highlight an industry advancing on multiple fronts and developing the technologies that could define the next generation of highly-productive photovoltaics.

✉️ Questions or feedback? Write us at podcast@thesmartere.com