Intersolar Europe 2023 was a blast for PVcase. Its Bauhaus-styled yellow booth was always crowded, and the new tools attracted enormous attention. Highly successful participation also marked our first collaboration with the recently acquired Anderson Optimization company, whose team also participated in the trade show along with PVcase.

The Intersolar trade show and the conference took place from the 13th to 16th of June in Munich, Germany, and attracted all the major solar market players from all across the globe. In addition to this, PVcase also organized its own customer education seminar, SmartUp’23, that took place just before Intersolar. Moreover, our R&D specialist Algirdas Ducinskas delivered a presentation on digital twin technology called “Utility-Scale Solar Power II: Quality, Reliability & Performance.”

Let’s explore the key highlights of our team’s experiences at Intersolar.

PVcase at Intersolar

The Intersolar attendance record was hit again. Last year the organizers expected 60000, but they got 75000 guests. This year, they expected 850000, while 100,000 visitors participated in the show. As usual, PVcase socks were among the most sought merch items.

New call-to-action

Intersolar 2023 will bring PVcase an influx of new customers and make the brand even more visible. Povilas Sumskas, PVcase’s Head of Outbound, said: “We had expected the show to be busy, but we couldn’t imagine it would be that busy. It was so swamped that those three days were buzzing. Usually, when we go to conferences, we see the changes throughout different parts of the day. But now, it was consistently hectic throughout the day, and people were also very interested in our booth design. It proved to be the ideal time and place for us to showcase our product.”

Povilas also highlighted the tremendous interest sparked by PVcase’s soon-to-be-launched Roof Mount and Yield tools, as well as PVcase Prospect.

Volha Vziatkina, PVcase’s Marketing Events Manager, was also very positive: “Given last year’s experience, we expected our booth to be jam-packed. But the busy we imagined, and the busy we actually had was next level. I don’t think I ever saw a single person not having a conversation, not giving a demo. At some point, we saw 27 demos or conversations within the booth. So literally every corner, every station, and every person was busy. Our booth also left a lasting impression on people, who were fascinated and even took photos.”

Key takeaways from the conference

Get a glimpse into the Intersolar conference through the lens of PVcase’s market insights team, who have gathered several important takeaways.

Global solar market and long-term outlook

– According to SolarPower Europe (SPE), 239 GW of solar were grid-connected globally in 2022 (45% year-over-year growth). This is lower than the 252 GW estimated by BNEF. 2022 was characterized by the stabilization of supply chains and an energy crisis. Moreover, many discover solar as a hedge against soaring energy prices.
– Under its Medium scenario, SPE expects solar installations to grow to 341 GW by 2023 (while BNEF numbers are 344 GW) and reach 615 by 2027 (BNEF — 529 GW). The high scenario could see almost 800 GW installed in 2027 (BNEF — 570 GW).
– Research community sees between 14 and 80 TW by 2050, up from 1.2 TW at the end of 2022. The most likely scenario is between 60 and 80 TW by 2050, while the 2030s expect a 3.7 TW annual market.

Hybrid projects

– A conference session showcased 18 concrete hybrid projects (1 hydro-floating, 13 solar with battery energy storage system (BESS), two solar-wind, one solar-wind with BESS, and one agrivoltaic with BESS).

Hybrid market outlook

– Colocating renewable energy (RE) and BESS could become the new normal across all markets.
– Near 30% renewable energy injection could be perfect for rolling out hybrid PV+BESS.
– Cumulative front-of-the-meter battery plants are expected to grow from about 50 GWh in 2023 to 300 GWh in 2031.

Advantages of hybrid projects

– Provision of ancillary Services and short-term (< 1h) stability.
– Improved participation in Spot market Trading – hourly equalization of demand and supply
‘PV + battery revenue stacking.
– Optimized grid connections, increased RE technology mix in the power system, and integration of more variable RE through storage.
– Operational advantages such as firmer output, reduced O&M cost, and higher capacity factor.
– The reduction of curtailment.

Agrivoltaics

– Launch of V2 of the Agrisolar Best Practice Guidelines.
– Agri-PV installed on 10% of the EU’s Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) could reach an installed capacity between 3 and 14 TWp. However, there is still no aggregate data on the size of the agrivoltaic market, neither in Europe nor the world.

Summary

Overall, Intersolar Europe 2023 was another major leap for PVcase. Our Bauhaus-styled pavilion attracted many different people from the industry that were interested in the demos of our products. Moreover, the trade show left a positive impact and provided the company with new possibilities for growth in the global solar market. We’ll work hard to return even bigger next year.

Feel free to share your ideas with us for our next year’s Intersolar edition.