.png)
Update on global solar and inside “24/7 renewable Germany” – with Charlotte Senkpiel & Sonia Dunlop
The smarter E PodcastShow Notes
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 [email protected]
More from The smarter E Podcast
Germany helped pioneer the political frameworks that made solar a global success. But with daytime electricity prices falling, solar companies under pressure, and significant policy reforms taking shape, could the impressive solar and battery installation rates of recent years slow dramatically?
Europe has some of the world’s best solar researchers and strongest local markets. So why is so much of the PV manufacturing happening somewhere else?
Germany’s utility-scale battery deployment is hitting an inflection point.
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.
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.