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It’s Eurovision! Solar Startups Edition (live from the SolarPower Summit) – with Jenny Chase and the European Solar Startup Award finalists
The smarter E PodcastShow Notes
Recorded on-site at the SolarPower Summit in Brussels, this week’s episode captures the market developments and innovative young companies shaping Europe’s clean energy transition.
We kick things off with renowned BloombergNEF solar analyst Jenny Chase, who joins us to unpack why batteries have become the defining technology conversation across Europe’s solar sector. As PV penetration rates continue to increase and negative pricing events become more common, Jenny explains why in this next phase of development, the industry’s challenge is managing flexibility, storage, and increasingly volatile power markets.
The conversation touches on anticipated developments like changing energy-trading models, EV smart charging, and long-duration storage, while also exploring how software and intelligent asset management are becoming as important as the hardware itself. And Jenny flags battery revenue cannibalization as a trend to keep an eye out for.
The second half of the episode features interviews with the four finalists of the European Solar Startup Award, recorded directly after the competition finals at the summit:
We speak with Sweden’s Qurrent about hybrid solar and battery optimization platforms designed to unlock new revenue streams for renewable assets.
Finland’s Polar Night Energy explains how high-temperature sand batteries could provide low-cost industrial heat and long-duration storage using excess renewable electricity.
Gridio discusses the growing importance of seamless EV smart charging and integrating electric vehicles with home solar systems.
And finally, we hear from reLi Energy – the winner of the competition – on one of the battery sector’s most urgent emerging challenges: degradation management and how smarter operation of battery assets could dramatically improve long-term revenues and asset lifetimes.
From the summit location in Brussels, this episode of The smarter E podcast provides a snapshot of where the European energy transition is heading next.
Thank you to SolarPower Europe for the event invitation.
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