Solar Energy Expo Warsaw 2026: Why BESS and Energy Management Are Now the Core of Europe’s Power System

The opening day of Solar Energy Expo at Ptak Expo in Warsaw felt less like a traditional trade fair and more like a live snapshot of where the European energy system is heading. Walking through the halls, one reality becomes impossible to ignore: energy storage and intelligent energy management have moved from the margins to the very centre of the industry.

Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, dominate the exhibition. The number of stands, the diversity of solutions and the scale of projects being discussed all point to the same conclusion: storage is no longer an add-on to solar and wind, it is the infrastructure that allows renewables to function at scale. Without storage, flexibility, grid stability and market optimisation remain theoretical. With storage, they become operational.

What is equally revealing is how the market is structured. A large part of the BESS ecosystem in Warsaw is represented by distributors, integrators and trading companies rather than by manufacturers themselves. This reflects how fast the sector is growing. Europe is not only buying technology; it is building local channels that can deliver, finance, integrate and operate storage systems across very different regulatory and grid environments. Control of distribution and project pipelines is becoming just as important as control of factories.

Alongside this, another layer of the market is rising rapidly: energy intelligence. One of the most interesting developments at the exhibition is the growing presence of Polish technology companies presenting their own Energy Management Systems (EMS) for photovoltaic plants and battery storage. These platforms handle forecasting, dispatch, optimisation, grid interaction and revenue stacking. In a system where electricity prices, balancing markets and grid constraints change by the hour, the software that decides when and how batteries charge and discharge becomes as valuable as the batteries themselves.

This shift shows how the energy transition is maturing. We are moving from a world focused mainly on hardware to one where digital control, data and optimisation define profitability and system stability. Photovoltaics, batteries and EMS are no longer separate products; they are parts of a single operating system for the modern power grid.

Seen through this lens, Warsaw today looks less like a trade fair and more like a map of Europe’s energy future. Storage provides the physical backbone, while energy management software provides the brain. Together, they are turning renewable generation into a controllable, bankable and resilient energy system — and that is what will ultimately define the next decade of Europe’s power sector.