The smarter E Europe opened in Munich on Tuesday to fully booked halls and attendance expectations north of 100,000 visitors – a turnout that reflects a industry increasingly confident in its own trajectory. And while the halls may be filled with modules, inverters, storage systems and technical hardware of every description, but the real focus of this year's event reaches well beyond the product and to questions of energy security, economic resilience and, not incidentally, the future of the planet.
Intersolar 2026: public and science say “yes” – politics are another matter
The central argument running through the opening day was that a continuous, round-the-clock supply from renewable sources is no longer a theoretical proposition. New research from Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, commissioned by the organisers, provides the modelling to support that claim. "Our data proves that even an energy system supplied purely by renewable sources is reliable," said Dr Charlotte Senkpiel, Senior Scientist at Fraunhofer ISE. "Sun and wind perfectly complement each other. An intelligent combination of grids, decentralised battery storage, controllable power plants operated with climate-neutral gases and flexible demand fully offsets weather-driven fluctuations."
The numbers that make the case
As the study argues, the economic case is at least as compelling as the technical. The cost of avoiding a tonne of CO₂ through the transition runs to around €210, against an estimate of €880 per tonne for the damage caused by climate change itself – a gap that framed much of the opening conversation. The geopolitical dimension was equally present. The 2022–2023 fossil energy crisis, which required a government relief package of €187 billion in Germany alone, served as a recurring reference point. Markus Elsässer, CEO of Solar Promotion GmbH, put it in terms of systemic resilience: "Wind and solar energy have long formed the secure foundation of our energy system. At The smarter E Europe, we prove categorically that renewable energy sources can supply us securely 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
Intersolar – Solar's success is a new headache for European grids
The show's centrepiece is the special exhibit Renewables 24/7, a hands-on installation demonstrating the real-time coordination of generation, storage, grid infrastructure and digital management, backed by a broad coalition of associations and technology partners including CATL, Siemens AG and Octopus Energy. (TF)
The smarter E Europe runs until 25 June at Messe München, encompassing Intersolar Europe, ees Europe, Power2Drive Europe and EM-Power Europe
