The global macro-trends – rising electricity tariffs, growing electricity demand, and rapidly declining battery storage prices – all continue to drive the growth of distributed renewable power in major growth economies. The solar power ‘arbitrage’ is just too strong for consumers and businesses to avoid. Government and/or utility policy restrictions cannot seem to slow down the market forces that drive record growth in the US or internationally.
Looking ahead at 2026, what are some trends?
- Solar and Storage Powering Load Growth: EV Charging and Data Centers
There is a shortage of high-speed charging networks in the US and Europe, and the cost of such charging is still high. Storage with Solar is the answer and China has the answer e.g. CNTE in China has 100+ of solar-powered stations launched. Solar can bring down the cost of mobility rapidly as the deployment of fast charging rapidly to address continued record growth in EV sales.The same holds for data centers, where it’s an even bigger problem as wholesale US electricity prices are being driven up by utility bids. The solution includes onsite battery storage (powered by solar) for peak loads, a rapidly growing trend in the US, Europe, and Asia. With battery prices falling to the lowest levels ever, now at $70/kWh, a new record low, there will be massive deployments ahead.
- Renewable Energy Asset Management Adapting to Growing Complexity
With storage paired with solar, for the majority of new residential clients in major markets such as California, Germany, or Australia, aging battery assets now present new maintenance needs for fleet owners and managers. Virtual Power Plant (VPP) enablement is driving increased incentives for on-time performance. In addition, Vehicle to Grid (V2G) has arrived, at least in Europe, with France leading the way. New battery safety standards are pushing the compliance envelope e.g., Netherlands battery rules (PGS37-1) will drive new mandatory monitoring requirements, and increasingly stringent permitting requirements from US AHJs are expected. Solar and storage asset operations have never seen such complexity, and this is now driving new systems and processes for maintenance (O&M).However, at the same time, US solar installers have exited the market in record numbers in 2024 and 2025. With recent bankruptcies of large developers like Sunnova and Sunpower, and hundreds more, along with rising labor costs, the O&M industry faces challenges ahead as a million US solar homes have no installer of record (‘Solar orphans’). This is also an opportunity for technology-enabled services and platforms.
- Progressive Utilities Pivoting Their Retail Strategy to Offer Solar and Storage
Over a hundred Municipal Utilities (‘Stadtwerke’s) in Germany – such as SWM in Munich – both sell and execute solar projects, working with local installers. Even large investor-owned utilities such as Iberdrola in Spain or EDP in Portugal have now launched distributed solar programs serving their clients directly. In India’s capital city of Delhi, BSES Rajdhani Power has partnered with approved installers bring solar to thousands of homes and businesses.In the US, very few utilities – such as ConEdison in New York – offer solar and distributed energy to their clients. A few dozen municipal co-operatives (‘Co-Ops’) have launched solar programs in their territories. Utility executives agree on making investments on technology and innovation, in the areas of grid modernization and AI-enabled fleets to improve overall customer experience.
We are living in fascinating times, as distributed clean energy continues to disrupt the centralized ‘poles-and-wires’ model of electricity distribution launched a hundred years ago. For millions of homes and businesses, onsite solar-electric generation with battery storage is becoming a reliable source of electricity. This now powers their mobility and is becoming a new backbone for the global energy grids that are still adapting to survive with new business models to benefit from this energy transition.
(Deep Chakraborty, CEO & Co-Founder, Enact Solar)
