Registration & Refreshments
Market Outlook & Economics
CEE Solar 2026: Capture Rates, Curtailment & the New Project Economics
In 2026, capture rates have declined to 50-60% of baseload, while negative prices have reshaped the investment case for standalone PV assets. This panel evaluates how developers and financiers navigate cannibalisation and grid constraints.
- How are curtailment and cannibalisation impacting asset economics?
- What does a financeable, bankable solar project look like today?
- What innovations in PPAs and revenue hedging protect asset value?
- Has standalone utility-scale solar had its day in the region?
Morning Networking Break
Hybrid Deals & Financing
Romania: Solar-Plus-Storage, From First Movers to Mainstream
Romania’s co-located solar and battery market is moving faster than almost anywhere else in the region, and the first operational projects are starting to talk back.
- What co-located configurations are reaching financial close, and what does a bankable structure look like?
- What are the first operational hybrid projects revealing about battery dispatch performance against projections?
- How is Transelectrica's new grid framework affecting co-location connection rights and shared infrastructure economics?
- How close is Romania to the market pressures already visible in Poland, and does co-located storage change that outlook?
The Investment Case in Numbers, CEE Hybrid & Curtailment Data
This presentation puts the region's capture rate and hybrid deployment data side by side, focused squarely on how the economics of a co-located deal actually pencil out, building the numerical backbone for the deal-making conversations that follow.
- How do capture rates and deployment volumes compare across Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and the wider region?
- What does the data suggest about where hybrid economics work best right now?
Retrofitting Solar with Storage: A Baltic Case Study
How Vindo Solar unlocks new revenue by adding battery storage to an operational solar plant in Lithuania. The session will cover trading strategies, dispatch priorities, permitting hurdles, and the financial structuring behind this utility-scale project.
Structuring & Financing the Next Generation of Hybrid & PPA Deals
Hybrid projects dominate every hallway conversation in CEE right now, yet actual PPA closures remain surprisingly rare. This session pulls apart why, tracing the gap between the deals developers want to structure and the ones corporate buyers are actually prepared to sign, and tests whether the underlying numbers still hold once a hybrid project is built.
- What PPA structures are closing in CEE today, and which remain more promise than practice?
- How do corporate buyers view battery economics, and why do some treat hybrid investment as speculative?
- Which revenue streams, arbitrage, capacity markets, frequency response and curtailment mitigation, are lenders prepared to underwrite?
- How are cross-border PPA arrangements becoming essential for scope 2 requirements and 24-hour matching?
Networking Lunch Break
Asset Value & Risk
Building & Exiting Sellable Assets
Every project eventually needs a buyer, a refinancer, or both. This session follows an asset's full arc, from the handover moments that quietly shape long-term value, to the documentation and track record that separate a smooth exit from a stalled one.
- What are the most common issues during the construction to operations handover, and how do they affect long term value?
- What operational track record do buyers and refinancers expect when evaluating existing assets?
- What technical, commercial and legal attributes separate a highly sought asset from one that struggles to find a buyer?
- What documentation and warranties are now considered essential for a smooth transaction?
Speakers
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Miguel Galatas, CCO & Co-Founder, nTeaser
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Olga Sypula, Vice President and Regional Director for Central Europe, European Energy
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Tamás Jakab, Director, Divestments, Taaleri Energia
- Hubert Kowalski, Managing Director / President of the Board, VSB Energie Odnawialne Polska sp. z o. o., TotalEnergies iPower Polska
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Nicola Kopij Zanin CFA, M&A Director, PST
Bulgaria: CEE's Quiet Overachiever, Solar and Storage Without Subsidies
Bulgaria is one of Europe's most compelling subsidy-free solar stories. With gigawatt-scale additions and massive projects advancing, the market faces declining capture rates and new eco-taxes. This session explores the country’s next phase, detailing merchant strategies, hybrid project economics, and the impact of the 2026 Eurozone adoption.
- How has Bulgaria sustained three consecutive years of 1 GW-plus solar deployment without direct subsidies?
- What do current storage project configurations look like, and what are lenders underwriting to reach financial close?
- What critical structuring lessons can developers and financiers learn from Bulgaria’s largest merchant hybrid project?
- How far along is the transition to standalone storage and hybridisation to combat declining capture rates?
- How severely will the recent sharp increases in local recycling fees impact procurement for new projects?
- What does Eurozone adoption mean for reducing currency risk and attracting Western institutional capital to project finance?
Afternoon Networking Break
Grid Connections & Infrastructure
Grid Challenges, Curtailment & the Case for Cable Pooling
Grid connectivity has emerged as the defining challenge across CEE markets, fundamentally reshaping project economics and development timelines. Curtailment is eroding revenues, connection costs are escalating, and traditional grid access routes are proving inadequate. This session examines the technical and commercial realities facing developers today, exploring how cable pooling, alternative connection routes, and strategic grid engagement can unlock project viability in constrained markets.
- What is the current state of grid capacity and curtailment across CEE markets?
- How does cable pooling work, and what commercial benefits does it offer?
- What are the alternative routes to grid connectivity, and when do they make sense?
- How are recent grid connection rule changes affecting project development?
Networking Drinks
Registration & Refreshments
Chair Opening Remarks
Supply Chain & Compliance
Energy Security & the Renewable Supply Chain
The European solar supply chain is navigating a period of structured adjustment following recent shifts in international financing guidelines. We will explore how upcoming European compliance and cybersecurity frameworks affect clean tech procurement and outline the strategic steps developers are taking to maintain pipeline bankability.
- What are the core timelines of the new compliance restrictions, and how will they affect standard product sourcing by 2027?
- How are developers modifying their procurement pipelines to align with updating international standards without sacrificing project efficiency?
- What regulatory and risk assessments are being deployed to evaluate the bankability of alternative supply chains?
- How can international investors safeguard active and upcoming project pipelines against shifting financial eligibility criteria?
Audience Insights: 2027 and the Cost of Compliance
Three rapid live polls run on screen straight after the supply chain and compliance discussion, ninety seconds after each to compare notes with whoever's sitting alongside before the next question loads. Built directly off what was just debated on stage, so the room gets to test its own view against what it just heard rather than switching topics entirely.
Key takeaways:
- A live read on how much the panel actually shifted opinion in the room, not just what was said on stage
- A short conversation with someone new, prompted directly by the discussion that just happened
Hungary: Building Europe's Battery Manufacturing Hub
Hungary is now home to one of Europe's largest battery manufacturing investments, anchored by significant international capital and positioning the country as a central player in the region's supply chain. As compliance and financing standards continue to evolve across Europe, following on from the discussion just heard, Hungary's experience offers a grounded, real-world reference point for what those standards mean in practice. This panel looks at what Hungary's journey so far can offer other CEE markets considering similar paths.
- What has Hungary's battery manufacturing investment delivered so far, and what has that process revealed about balancing rapid industrial growth with evolving environmental and regulatory expectations?
- How does hosting large-scale international battery manufacturing shape a market's access to Western, compliance-driven financing?
- What practical lessons might other CEE markets take from Hungary's experience before pursuing similar partnerships?
- How might state support for major investments be structured to serve both economic and environmental goals?
Morning Networking Break
Delivery & Deployment
Zoning, Permitting & Regulatory Bottlenecks: The Hidden Project Killer
Grid connection gets most of the attention, but permitting is quietly killing as much pipeline across CEE. Planning timelines that stretch years beyond EU targets, environmental consenting processes that vary wildly between markets, and municipal opposition that emerges late in the development cycle are collectively responsible for a significant share of project failures that never make it into the public data. This session examines what is happening on the ground and what developers can do to protect their pipelines.
- How do permitting timelines and processes compare across Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria — where is the system working and where is it broken?
- What is the gap between the EU's two-year permitting target and reality in CEE markets, and what is driving it?
- How are environmental consenting requirements evolving and which habitat and biodiversity rules are creating the most friction for utility-scale solar?
- What early-stage development practices reduce permitting risk and which mistakes do developers repeatedly make that could be avoided?
- How are municipalities and local communities influencing planning outcomes and what does effective stakeholder engagement look like?
- What regulatory reforms are most needed and which markets are moving in the right direction?
From Ready-to-Build to Fully Deployable: What Utility-Scale Projects Require
The CEE utility-scale market has fundamentally shifted. Investors and funds are no longer accepting projects that simply hold planning consent, grid connection agreements, and land rights. Today's market demands fully deployable assets that can move seamlessly from financial close to energisation, with discharged planning conditions, resolved physical site challenges, and proven construction readiness that goes far beyond the "three-consent fallacy."
- What has fundamentally changed in investor expectations for utility-scale project readiness, and why are planning consent, grid connection, and land rights no longer sufficient to secure capital commitment?
- Which critical gaps between "ready-to-build" and "fully deployable" consistently cause transaction failures during due diligence, and how can developers proactively demonstrate genuine buildability beyond securing three key consents?
- What are the cost implications and business model adjustments required to achieve "fully deployable" status in today's compressed return environment, and how should developers structure their approach to meet these higher readiness standards?
Closed Roundtable
Women in CEE Renewables: Roundtable on Leadership & Growth
Championing women leaders across the CEE solar and storage landscape to build resilient talent pipelines, foster executive growth, and power the next phase of the energy transition.
Note: Space for this session is strictly limited to foster open dialogue - please register in advance to secure your seat.
Networking
Capital & Investment
Ukraine: Solar and Storage Investment Under Wartime Conditions
Ukraine's renewable energy market has not stopped. Solar and battery storage projects continue to reach financial close, supported by international donors, duty exemptions, and a growing cohort of private developers willing to underwrite the risk. This session examines how deals are getting done, what the risk mitigation toolkit looks like, and whether Ukraine represents a genuine near-term opportunity for the CEE solar investment community.
- What is the current state of solar and BESS development activity in Ukraine and which parts of the country are viable?
- How are international donors and DFIs structuring financing to make projects bankable under wartime conditions?
- What political risk and war risk insurance products are available and what do they cover?
- How are developers managing construction logistics, grid connection, and operational security on active sites?
- What does the post-war reconstruction pipeline look like and how should investors be positioning now?
Moderator
Attracting Western Institutional Capital to CEE
Central and Eastern Europe has seen pioneer investors deploy capital successfully, yet mainstream Western institutional funds remain largely absent. This closing panel examines the barriers preventing large infrastructure investors from entering CEE markets and what needs to change to unlock institutional-scale capital deployment.
- Why have mainstream Western institutional investors not yet entered CEE markets at scale?
- What specific concerns around grid, power prices, currency risk, and revenue repatriation affect investment decisions?
- What needs to happen for CEE to attract the next wave of institutional capital?
