The worldwide boom in renewable energy continues unabated. According to REN21's latest Global Status Report 2024, last year alone, 536 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity was installed worldwide. Our energy infrastructure must be rapidly expanded, digitalized and made more flexible to accommodate this growth. With its four individual exhibitions – Intersolar Europe, ees Europe, Power2Drive Europe and EM-Power Europe – The smarter E Europe opens its doors today to show how a 24/7 renewable energy supply can be realized.

3,048 registered exhibitors will be presenting their latest products and solutions for a future-proof energy world with renewable energies at Europe’s largest alliance of exhibitions for the energy industry. More than 115,000 visitors from all around the world are expected to attend the event by Friday. For three days, The smarter E Europe provides the perfect opportunity to discover the latest trends, technologies and business models, and to network with the industry’s decision makers and visionaries at Messe München.

The smarter E Europe 2024, which opens its doors today, is all about a renewable 24/7 energy supply: 3,048 registered exhibitors will be showcasing their innovative products and solutions across 206,000 square meters in 19 exhibition halls and at the Outdoor Area. With this, The smarter E Europe offers the space needed to share ideas on current trends, technologies and business models, and to accelerate the cross-sector and cross-industry implementation of a future-proof 24/7 renewable energy supply. “This necessitates collaborative long-term planning involving all sectors and stakeholders, along with investment in the grid infrastructure and storage needed to unlock higher shares of renewables across the entire economy”, says Rana Adib, Executive Director at REN21.

Intersolar Europe 2024: Growth in quantity and quality

Photovoltaics (PV) will play a central role in this effort: According to REN21’s Global Status Report 2024, 407 GW of capacity was deployed last year alone. This represents an increase of around 34 percent over the previous year, and brings PV closer to the milestone of two terawatts of installed PV capacity. PV is growing not only in terms of quantity, but also in quality. New markets and business models are constantly emerging while established and new players are developing ever more intelligent applications. As the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry, Intersolar Europe demonstrates the enormous vitality of the solar market. With its extensive accompanying program, Intersolar Europe attracts an international expert audience. At the PV Manufacturing Stage (hall A2, booth A2.409) and at the Intersolar Forum (hall A3, booth A3.150), experts will be reporting on PV production highlights.

The focus of the Intersolar Forum 2024 will be on large-scale and hybrid power plants as well as floating PV, i.e. PV power plants that float on bodies of water. The combination of PV and agriculture is also a hotly debated topic. That’s why there will be a special exhibit on agricultural PV in the Outdoor Area of the exhibition. What’s more, the industry association SolarPower Europe will be presenting its Global Market Outlook for Solar Power 2024–2028 at the Intersolar Europe Conference (June 18–19 at the International Congress Center München). Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, on the urgent need for action in the next few years in the face of continuing growth: “To sustain this growth, we must address several critical bottlenecks. We need the right infrastructure to support further renewable electrification.“

ees Europe 2024: The decade of battery storage

Energy storage systems are booming: Florian Mayr, Committee Chairman of the ees Europe Conference, calls this decade the “energy storage decade”. According to Frontier Economics, the volume of on-grid storage systems in Germany will reach 60 GW/271 GWh by 2050, which represents a forty-fold increase from current capacity. Similar cost reductions and growth rates as for PV are expected. Energy storage systems could soon revolutionize our energy supply. Patrick Clerens, Secretary General of the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) emphasizes: “The energy storage sector prioritizes creating a fair, forward-looking, and sustainable energy market design that recognizes storage as a crucial element of the energy system.”

The importance of energy storage is also reflected in ees Europe’s development: The exhibition has grown both in exhibition area and number of exhibitors compared to last year. On around 47,000 square meters across five exhibition halls and the Outdoor Area, more than 760 exhibitors will present their wide range of products and solutions – from commercial and residential storage systems and innovative battery technologies to mobile storage systems and artificial intelligence for battery systems. In total, 1,090 energy storage solution suppliers are taking part in The smarter E Europe. Green hydrogen innovations and power-to-gas applications will also be presented. An additional highlight for visitors in 2024: ees Europe will be celebrating its tenth anniversary with a big birthday party.

Power2Drive Europe 2024: The infrastructure has to grow with the market

The e-mobility boom continues at a global scale and this dynamic is expected to accelerate in the next years. The deployment of charging infrastructure must keep pace with the market ramp-up of battery electric vehicles. Maciej Mazur, President of The European Association for Electromobility AVERE, on the main challenges electromobility faces: “For one, there is a dynamic market; for another, there is a new sense of urgency for increased sustainability; and lastly, there is a challenging legislative environment.”

To find solutions to our current challenges, Power2Drive Europe brings together the who's who of e-mobility, allowing visitors to experience the dynamism of the industry first hand: The exhibition features 450 exhibitors which represents a 70 percent increase over last year, and the exhibition space has grown by around 80 percent to 26,500 square meters. Charging solutions for fleets and smart solutions for combining low-cost renewable power generation and sustainable mobility will be showcased in the Outdoor Area, for example parking lot PV. To offer exhibition visitors the full experience of electromobility, the exhibition will once again offer test drives.

EM-Power Europe 2024: Power grids as stage for the energy transition

Increasing decentralized power generation from sun and wind and the simultaneous electrification of the mobility and heating sectors are turning power grids into a central stage of the energy transition. We need digitalized, flexible and responsive grids and markets, which even integrate consumers, to meet the requirements of a future-proof energy world. EM-Power Europe focuses on the latest trends and developments in modernizing and digitalizing the power grid and turning it into a flexible smart grid, integrating prosumers, e-mobility and power-to-heat concepts into a holistic, renewable energy system.

Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of the European association Eurelectric, highlights the importance of our grids: “Europe’s distribution grids urgently need to be modernized in order to enable the massive electrification and associated decarbonization, to integrate renewables and to be able to withstand increasingly frequent weather extremes and cyber threats.” He adds: “To be successful, grid operators need clear regulatory support so they can proactively invest and digitalize their business.”

The smarter E Europe 2024: Integrated solutions for a renewable 24/7 energy supply

As Europe’s largest alliance of exhibitions for the energy industry, The smarter E Europe presents solutions, products and business models for a renewable 24/7 energy supply. The event is organized by Solar Promotion GmbH and Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co. KG (FWTM). “We’re delighted by the unabated growth of renewables. However, in order for our energy infrastructure to handle this growth, we need to upgrade it by digitalizing it and making it more flexible. “We must not allow our success to turn into a disadvantage,” says Markus Elsässer, CEO of Solar Promotion GmbH. “In Munich we provide the ideal platform for cross-sector and cross-industry discussions, so we can celebrate our successes and meet our current challenges together. In the end, we can only achieve a future-proof energy world by working together.” Hanna Böhme, CEO of FWTM, adds: “Our four energy exhibitions and conferences provide a platform for players from various different sectors to network, learn from each other and launch joint projects.”

As Europe’s largest alliance of exhibitions for the energy industry, The smarter E Europe unites four exhibitions (Intersolar Europe, ees Europe, Power2Drive Europe and EM-Power Europe) and will take place at Messe München from June 19–21, 2024.