Solar & Storage Live 2026 — The Full Write-Up

The Solar and Storage show was busy. We queued for up to ten minutes just to pick up passes, which is one measure of how far the event has grown. Here is the fuller picture of what I saw and what it means for plug-in solar in the UK.

The keynotes focused on how solar has become mainstream this year and on how much additional capacity has been added globally. Australia was the example that stuck with me: around 600,000 homes now have panels, and that fleet is big enough to heavily influence the wholesale price of electricity. Once rooftop solar starts moving the market price, it has stopped being a niche.

Two other themes ran through the event. Building materials that include PV are becoming a real category of their own, and floating solar is proving viable — panels run cooler on water, and the water underneath loses less to evaporation.

For the UK, plug-in is only just getting going. One expectation quoted at the show was that around 30% of homes would need assistance to install — an electrician mainly, but roofers too. That is worth holding onto if you are planning a DIY kit: for many houses the 13A plug is the easy part, and the roof or the consumer unit is not.

UKSOL had the full kit on display and gave a demonstration aimed at installers. Their mission is to get solar energy to people previously excluded from it — households that don't own their roof or don't have a huge garden. That is the same audience this site is built around.

EcoFlow had a large stand, and I spoke with Fiona Chen, the EMEA lead for their plug-in range. She told me the Stream Ultra and 5000 series will be compatible with the plug-in range very soon — the software appears to already be out — and that the 5000 series is due to ship in late October.

I took a good look at the flexible panels, because I think they could be useful for plug-in and DIY solar: lower in weight, and genuinely flexible. The warning from the trade was that output and durability are both lower than a rigid panel. If you were looking to attach panels to a shed or a fence, though, they could be ideal.

In summary, a good show — but not one for consumers. The useful signals were about where the range is heading rather than what to buy this week, and I'll keep reporting the ones that land.