What happens after solar wins? | Watt Matters by PVcase

S2E1 episode overview

Recorded live at Intersolar Europe 2026, this episode brings together three industry leaders to shed a light on solar’s next phase:

• Jenny Chase, Solar Analyst at BloombergNEF

• Josefin Berg, Associate Director at S&P Global Energy

• Stefan Müller, COO and Co-founder of ENERPARC AG

Hosted by Conrado Lamas, Head of Marketing Communications at PVcase, the conversation explores the industry’s priority change from hardware efficiency to system integration.

Solar won on cost. What comes next?

The numbers reveal a growing tension.

Global module manufacturing capacity stands at roughly 1 TW for a market expecting 640 GW of demand. In Spain, wholesale electricity prices dipped into zero or negative territory during 9% of the hours in 2025. Meanwhile, European storage additions could more than double in a single year.

Solar produces more low-cost power than ever before, but market value increasingly depends on where, when, and how it enters the grid.

In this special episode of Watt Matters, host Conrado Lamas sits down with Jenny Chase (Solar Analyst, BloombergNEF), Josefin Berg (Associate Director, S&P Global Energy), and Stefan Müller (COO & Co-founder, ENERPARC AG) to examine how and why solar is becoming a victim of its own success.

Together, they break down the new bottlenecks bogging down a mature solar industry, and arrive at the same conclusion: Solar technology has been proven. The next phase of solar is to make the surrounding system work. 

What you’ll learn in this episode

• Why cheaper modules no longer solve solar’s biggest problems

• How energy prices are changing project economics

• Why storage deployment does not always happen where the system needs it most

• What solar’s transition from a subsidized sector to critical infrastructure means

• How data centers, EVs, heat pumps, and electrification could reshape electricity demand

• Why project value increasingly depends on when electricity is produced

• Where AI, software, and better processes can reduce costs beyond the module

• Why developers and operators must become more selective about the projects to move forward

Chapters

00:00 — What happens after solar wins?

01:10 — Jenny Chase: Cheap solar’s next problem

05:00 — Manufacturing overcapacity, negative prices, and storage

13:40 — Josefin Berg: Solar enters the big league

20:00 — Demand growth, regulation, and the road to 2030

31:00 — Stefan Müller: The operator’s view after 25 years

36:00 — Building across the full solar value chain

38:00 — AI, software, and the next cost reductions

42:00 — Designing for the value of the kilowatt-hour

46:30 — What solar’s next phase requires