Solar Energy Expo 2026, Poland’s flagship PV-plus-storage trade show, returned this month with a small footprint on the show floor, but a sharp focus on flexibility and market reforms, as well as on the storage, inverter and grid-forming technologies shaping the country’s next phase of grid integration.
Solar Energy Expo 2026 open to visitors from January 13 to 15 Ptak Warsaw Expoan exhibition center in the southwestern suburbs of the Polish capital. The sprawling complex – bordered on one side by a highway and on the other by dense forest teeming with wild boars – opened just two halls this year for Poland’s premier storage and solar event, leaving large swaths of empty or partitioned floor space.
That said, the pared-down affair – relatively subdued by global trading standards – still held its own as one of the most important regional renewable energy events in Central and Eastern Europe – a claim backed by figures. According to the event organizer, the fifth edition of Solar Energy Expo attracted 20,176 visitors from the industry, an increase of 11% year-on-year, including 2,087 from abroad. There were 315 exhibitors present, spread over 40,000 m² of exhibition space.
The 2026 edition of the solar fair was held simultaneously with the fifth PIME summit for storage energya combination that completely shifted the focus of the week to storage policy, flexibility markets and debates on system planning. The Storage Summit has become one of the most influential forums on Poland’s energy system, and this year’s program reflected a sector in transition.
The Polish solar energy market continues to grow at one of the fastest paces in Europe. According to the Instytut Energetyki Odnawialnej (IEO), Poland’s leading independent think tank specializing in renewable energy, the country surpassed 20 GW of cumulative PV capacity at the end of 2024 and reached 21.8 GW in the first quarter of 2025. Annual PV additions reached 3.7 GW in 2024, with the IEO predicting similar growth in 2025 and 2026, as utility-scale projects take a larger share of the market.
Meanwhile, energy market reform in Poland is gaining momentum as electrification accelerates in the transport, heating and industry sectors. Consulting firm Arthur D. Little predicts that national electricity demand will rise from 154 TWh in 2024 to as much as 210 TWh to 230 TWh in 2040 – a structural shift that further tightens the screws on a system already under pressure from coal retirement. That wave is forcing policymakers and system operators to confront the limits of current market design and move beyond incremental solutions, accelerating reforms that can unlock flexibility, scale storage, and modernize the mechanisms that keep the network balanced.
Against that backdrop, panels at the summit examined the evolution of national energy policies, the impact of flexibility mandates at EU level and the technical requirements for integrating storage into a network increasingly shaped by variable renewable energy sources. Speakers called storage an essential infrastructure for system security, balancing and resilience.
Unlike previous editions of the conference, panelists avoided speculative capacity claims. Poland currently has no official national storage target, although upcoming EU flexibility market rules will require the government to assess and plan its storage needs. The panel discussions mainly focused on whether Poland should prioritize large centralized assets or accelerate distributed deployment, and how flexibility requirements will influence investment decisions.
The reform of the market mechanism emerged as a second important topic of discussion. The panelists dissected the networking capabilities, flexibility products, connection cost adjustments, and qualification processes that aggregators face.
Several respondents argued that current reforms are still failing to enable new entrants, while others pointed to slow permitting and grid connection processes as a bottleneck to the size of storage Poland will need. Concerns also emerged from the business side, with observers noting the dominance of Asian suppliers and warning that cost-driven purchasing could undermine long-term system stability without stricter design standards and cybersecurity oversight.
On the show floor, exhibitors reflected a market that was diversifying in scale and technology. Utility-scale developers and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors – including PGE Polska, Greencells, Photon Energy, BayWa re, Statkraft, Northland Power and Axpo – showed continued momentum behind major PV and hybrid projects.
Battery and storage technology suppliers formed another large cluster. LG Energy Solution showed its focus on upstream production, while Alpha ESS promoted its modular Storion systems for commercial and industrial (C&I) customers in addition to utility-scale offerings. Inverter and hybrid system manufacturers such as BT Storage, Growatt, Fox ESS, Deye and Sigenergy also presented solutions for the residential to C&I segment.
System integrators and system balancing specialists had a strong presence, with CORAB and SL Rack promoting their technical solutions for mounting systems, while Wamtechnik and Elsta.pl showcased their growing role in the integration of battery energy storage systems (BESS). Ingeteam and Rawicom rounded out the segment by promoting their control systems expertise through energy management systems (EMS) and battery management systems (BMS) platforms, designed for the increasingly complex demands of hybrid projects.
Smaller players such as Byotta, Volt Power (Soleos), SunSynk and Eenovance brought niche components and integration services to the table. And domestic PV brands were also in full force, with ML System, MarvenSolar.pl, Polak PV, Proton Solar, Paneclaw, Marstek Keno, Volvetia, Grodno, Runergy and Dome Solar offering modules, mounting hardware and distribution offerings tailored to Polish installers and EPC contractors.
In the meeting rooms and IPOs, the message was consistent: storage is shifting from a promising addition to a central pillar of Poland’s energy transition. Regulatory clarity, market access and flexibility compensation remain unfinished business, but even with a smaller footprint the expo revealed an industry that is forward-thinking – cautious about policy gaps, confident in long-term demand and increasingly aware that the next phase of growth will depend on how effectively storage is integrated into the national system.
This content is copyrighted and may not be reused. If you would like to collaborate with us and reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
