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Posted June 26, 2026 at 10:45 am
It seemed fitting that this year’s Intersolar conference – billed as the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry – should coincide with temperature records being beaten across Europe. Over 100,000 (often quite sweaty) visitors will likely have attended the conference, part of the broader Smarter E-Europe event being hosted this week at Munich’s Messe. Beyond the multitude of World Cup football-related gimmicks aimed at drawing visitors to the 1,300 exhibition stands present, several major points emerged.
Almost every conversation your author had focused on the same key conflict. On one hand, Europe has a 2050 objective of climate neutrality. On the other, the EU wants the continent to treble the size of its data centre industry over the next decade. How to reconcile the two? Solar (inevitably, given the event) is seen as part of the solution – an energy source that can promote environmental priorities, enable energy independence and support digital sovereignty.
If only it were as easy as that. As many people pointed out to your author, the demand side is the obvious part of the equation. The bottlenecks are inherently more problematic. Long lead times for grid connections and lack of clarity around future policy direction were cited most regularly. As one solar panel exhibitor put it, “speed up permitting, [and] let us do our job.”
Furthermore, as several Germans highlighted, June’s current weather is abnormal. Solar may be great for intermittent power needs, but until battery storage solutions markedly improve (or record temperatures prove to be the new normal), other, more reliable, energy sources – typically gas or nuclear – need to be considered as baseload power for data centres. Many of the innovations on show at Intersolar, be it in novel battery or solar panel efficiencies, appear to represent incremental rather than structural improvements.
Participants from outside of the old continent – whether American or Chinese – seemed notably more upbeat about prospects. The former cited bipartisan support for their solar industry, especially if it can promote US domestic manufacturing jobs. The latter still see significant opportunities to sell their solar technology to anyone other than the Americans, with parts of Eastern Europe and South America being most attractive. When anyone was asked about how solar panels might feature were data centres to become functional in space, your author was mostly met with a look of incredulity…
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Originally Posted June 25, 2026 – Same sun, more energy
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