Looking Ahead to 2026

At Intersolar & Energy Storage North America, Sunhub, the solar industry’s leading online distributor and marketplace for solar buyers and sellers, will announce the launch of its next-generation Sunhub Sales Portal. This new SaaS platform gives solar suppliers, whether they are manufacturers, brokers, or distributors, total control over how solar products are priced and sold, including listing products, assigning sales reps, managing customer communications, providing quotes, and negotiating deal terms and contracts.

Simplifying B2B Solar Selling

The Sunhub Sales Portal is an all-in-one digital selling solution that enables vendors to create private, buyer-specific listings and custom sales channels without building a dedicated e-commerce site. It brings together customer relationship management (CRM), order management, deal negotiation, and e-commerce capabilities in a single SaaS-based platform.

More importantly, the Sunhub Sales Portal lets vendors deliver the right deal to the right customer, from bespoke pricing for major accounts to introductory offers for first-time buyers. Suppliers can interact directly with customers online to negotiate sales terms.

The Portal Sales Portal supports today’s flexible deal structures, offering:

• Private listings tailored for specific tier buyers
• Custom pricing and delivery terms in a secure environment
• Direct engagement with EPCs (engineering, procurement, and construction firms), resellers, and installers
• Centralized deal management across teams, customers, and regions
• Ability to tap into Sunhub’s online integrated resources for customer financing, logistics, and strategic warehousing

Suppliers can instantly scale their business by synchronizing deals to Sunhub’s Trader Platform. With one-click integration, you gain immediate exposure to the solar industry’s largest marketplace.

The Sales Portal addresses the ongoing challenge of balancing speed and transparency with the need for closely controlled, negotiated transactions. It also centralizes management of multiple deals, relationships, and workflows, eliminating the need to rely on email threads, spreadsheets, and disconnected systems.

“Solar manufacturers and suppliers have historically had to navigate a fragmented, opaque sales system that compresses their margins and strips them of control,” said Kadeer Beg, Chief Operating Officer of Sunhub. “With the launch of the Sunhub Sales Portal, we are giving solar vendors a powerful private platform to run their entire sales cycle, from client management to quote generation to online negotiation to final contract. They also gain the tools to capture end-user feedback and offer financing, logistics, and other value-added services. We designed the Portal to empower solar suppliers to manage direct deals at scale by modernizing the workflow to reflect how the industry actually does business.”

Frictionless Deal Negotiations

Using the Sunhub Sales Portal, vendors can manage every aspect of solar sales. Using the centralized secure portal, manufacturer sales reps can invite customers to view products and create custom offers. CRM data is entered into the system for direct customer interaction, and sales reps can share product specs, pricing, availability, and other details. Customers can negotiate product pricing and terms, such as shipping costs and warehousing, and once the terms are finalized, a contract is generated, all within a single secure platform. Sellers can create custom landing pages with a catalog of available inventory and pricing.

The Sales Portal’s automated quoting and contracting tools significantly reduce administrative overhead, beyond managing the direct B2B client base, the Sales Portal acts as a gateway to the industry’s largest marketplace. Suppliers can strategically publish public deals with tailored MOQs, allowing them to engage the wider market community without sacrificing the order-size standards required for their business. Suppliers gain massive brand visibility without the cost or complexity of maintaining their own e-commerce infrastructure.

Transactions are fully secured, including integrated payment processing. Sunhub uses a commission fee structure and charges no subscription fees for using the Sales Portal, making it fast and easy for vendors of any size to get started. Using the integrated Sunhub marketplace, manufacturers and suppliers can opt into Sunhub’s marketing services to promote products, brands, and deals.

Giving Solar Suppliers a Competitive Edge

DCT Energy LLC, a premier solar equipment broker and distributor based in Charlotte, NC, has transformed its sales operations by leveraging the Sunhub Sales Portal. By moving their workflow onto the platform, DCT Energy has bridged the gap between rapid quoting and complex deal fulfillment.

For DCT’s sales team, the primary advantage is pure speed: the portal enables them to list components with graphic images, product data sheets and certifications and generate custom price quotes in under two minutes, allowing for real-time responsiveness to EPCs and installers. Beyond simple agility, the Sales Portal acts as a gateway to Sunhub’s broader ecosystem, transforming the platform from a software tool into a strategic partner. This was clearly demonstrated when a DCT required specialized warehousing and financing for their client; rather than sourcing third-party vendors, DCT simply invited Sunhub into the deal chat to provide integrated logistics and net terms. By automating everything from contract execution to end-to-end shipping, Sunhub ensures that DCT can close complex deals seamlessly within a single, unified workflow.

“Sunhub’s Sales Portal has significantly streamlined our process,” says David Thomas, Managing Director of DCT Energy. “We can negotiate pricing and terms online quickly and easily. If a customer needs additional services, I know Sunhub is there to help us close the deal. It also allows us to track deal flow and activity in one place, without the clutter of external CRMs or endless email threads. Sunhub has truly designed a platform that matches the way we do business.”

Sunhub will be exhibiting at Intersolar Booth 3023. For more information about the Sunhub Sales Portal, visit https://tinyurl.com/436zrz69.

Sunhub | www.sunhub.com

SOLRITE Energy, a company specializing in financing, building and owning sonnen Virtual Power Plant Agreement (VPA) projects, launched their latest innovation for the Texas ERCOT market, a sonnen “battery-only” virtual power plant (VPP) offer, featuring 60kWh of sonnen energy storage per home and a 12¢ per kWh “all-in” retail energy rate, all for an unprecedented $20 per month fee. Already, 3,000 customers across Texas have joined the first-of-its-kind SOLRITE sonnen VPA. With the addition of the battery-only offer, by the end of 2026, SOLRITE and sonnen expect to sign up to 10,000 new customers on the VPA program, providing 600 MWh of dispatchable, flexible energy to the Texas energy system. This new SOLRITE product is unique and unmatched in the Texas ERCOT market, featuring superior backup power packaged with a compelling energy rate. SOLRITE sonnen Battery VPA offer is restricted to Texas “de-regulated utilities,” including Houston, Corpus Christi and McAllen.

“SOLRITE’s new ‘Battery-Only’ VPA product in Texas represents a major milestone for the growing VPP market in America,” said Blake Richetta, Chairman and CEO of sonnen Inc. USA. “Finally, the value of the VPP battery stands entirely on its own as a dispatchable grid balancing solution, by way of a deep grid services value stack, either added to an existing solar array or absent of solar entirely. It is through the robust VPP grid services value stack that the battery monetizes, enabling the extraordinary 12¢ per kWh retail rate and 60kWh of backup power for the end-user customer. For $20 per month, this unprecedented 60kWh product is affordable for most Texas families. With this product, the vast majority of the cost of the VPP Node is not shouldered by the end user, but is instead, paid for by the Texas energy system for value delivered.”

SOLAR ORPHANS
Retail electricity contracts in Texas typically last anywhere from 12 to 36 months. Compensation for solar injection into the grid, also known as a “Solar Buy-Back” in Texas, is offered as a component of certain retail electricity plans. At the end of any specific electricity contract, retail electric providers in Texas are not obligated to continue to offer a customer a Solar Buy-Back plan, as part of a new retail electricity contract. Therefore, in Texas, especially over time, it has become more difficult for retail electric providers to pay near retail prices for solar injection, resulting in Solar Buy-Backs gradually becoming less and less available in the market, leaving tens of thousands of solar customers with a “stranded” solar array. We refer to these folks as “Solar Orphans,” as they are left on the hook to continue to pay their Solar PPA production payments or loan payments for years to come, despite no longer being compensated for their constant daily solar injection into the grid.

But now, thanks to the pioneering SOLRITE sonnen Battery VPA offering, for zero dollars upfront and only $20 per month, orphaned solar customers can fortify their solar by leveraging sonnen’s industry leading batteries and software to bottle up their excess rooftop solar energy generated during the day and utilize this harnessed solar to energize their home in the evening – directly offsetting energy costs from the grid, where the customer would have otherwise “donated” their excess renewable energy. The harnessed solar, stored in sonnen batteries, will be focused on energizing the home during peak demand periods throughout the daily cycle, effectively synchronizing with the rhythm of the grid. Ultimately, the customer will consume the vast majority of their solar energy within their home, shaping the load to benefit Texas’s energy system while preventing solar from being injected into the grid at little to no compensation.

With a typical SOLRITE VPA home featuring an unprecedented 60 kWh sonnen energy reservoir, the customer will also benefit from substantial backup power and energy security in the face of extreme weather events and future grid failures.

“Many Texans who invested in rooftop solar have been left disappointed as shrinking buy-back programs and unpredictable retail plans eroded the savings they were promised,” explained Regan George, CEO and Founder of SOLRITE Energy. “Our new Battery-Only VPP, powered by 60 kWh of sonnen storage, gives those homeowners a way to capture and use their own energy for real value. And for non-solar customers, the same solution delivers robust backup power and an exceptional 12¢ all-in rate. For just $20 a month, SOLRITE is making reliable, resilient energy accessible to households across Texas.”

NO ROOFTOP SOLAR
Ratepayers who do not wish to or cannot install on-site rooftop solar can also sign up for the Battery-Only VPA for zero dollars down and $20 per month with no escalator, while benefiting from the 60kWh of backup power, as well as the extremely attractive 12¢ per kWh all-in retail electricity rate from SOLRITE-sonnen retail partner, Abundance Energy.

With a grid balancing capacity far exceeding that of solar + battery VPP nodes, pure sonnen battery nodes, with no rooftop solar, can function as a dispatchable load during times of excess generation in the grid. This innovative solution provides a form of reverse demand response for the grid, absorbing excess energy generated during low-demand periods and shifting it to meet customer needs during peak periods of high grid congestion, effectively acting as a large, coordinated grid load shift.

For example: on a windy and sunny spring day in Texas, where there is excess wind and solar energy traversing the grid, and insufficient load, SOLRITE sonnen Battery VPA clusters can act as giant dispatchable load sinks, swarm charging from the grid in a coordinated and precise manner, soaking up excess wind and solar power – sculpting demand to meet supply, instead of supply meeting demand. Thus, by helping to balance grid supply and demand through the careful load shaping of thousands of distributed energy systems, the SOLRITE sonnen Battery VPA enables greater penetration of utility-scale renewables in the grid, while reducing the need for peaking power plant generation and helping to better manage grid infrastructure.

A truly innovative offering, this battery-only VPA is a first-of-its-kind solution that will greatly impact the Texas energy market. Together, SOLRITE, sonnen and Abundance Energy are providing Texans with smarter, more sustainable energy solutions, while also dynamically balancing energy supply, ultimately maximizing value for both homeowners and the energy grid.

sonnen | www.sonnenusa.com

SOLRITE Energy | https://www.solriteenergy.com/

Merus Power Oyj has signed a battery energy storage deal worth approximately 13 million euros with Neve Oy. The 30 MW/80 MWh facility is designed to operate in extremely cold conditions and will be delivered to Rovaniemi at the end of 2026. The companies have also agreed on comprehensive operations and maintenance services for the energy storage facility.

The energy storage facility is engineered to operate reliably in Arctic conditions, withstanding temperatures down to –50 °C, heavy snowfall, and ice. The system uses grid forming technology that supports the inertia of the electricity grid and strengthens the stability of the electricity system. Merus Power delivered the first grid forming energy storage facilities in the Nordic countries to Valkeakoski and Lappeenranta last year.

Merus Power is responsible for the manufacture, installation, and testing of the BESS. The system is based on advanced technology developed by Merus Power in Finland and the company's own software, which controls and operates the BESS as part of the critical electricity infrastructure. Finnish software development, quality, and cybersecurity features support the system's operational reliability and controllability even in exceptional situations and crises.

Neve Oy is a Lapland-based, multi-sector group owned by the city of Rovaniemi. The company is responsible for electricity transmission, electricity and district heating production, district heating networks and services, water supply, fiber optics, and other energy and infrastructure services in the demanding conditions of the north. The energy storage facility to be delivered will enable participation in several different electricity markets, supporting the flexibility of the electricity grid and the operational reliability of the energy system in demanding conditions.

“Arctic conditions place exceptional requirements on electrical systems. Merus Power's solution responds to these challenges and supports our strategic goal of developing reliable and sustainable energy solutions for the demanding conditions of Lapland,” says Kristian Gullsten, CEO of Neve Oy.

“Merus Power’s energy storage solutions have been developed for demanding electricity grid environments where performance, reliability, and high availability are critical factors. We are proud that our modular solutions can be tailored to our customers' needs. With our technological expertise, we can support Neve Oy in developing the flexibility and reliability of its energy system,” comments Kari Tuomala, CEO of Merus Power.

The deal strengthens Merus Power's position as a supplier of demanding energy storage solutions both in the Nordic countries and internationally.

Merus Power | https://meruspower.com/

ChargePoint (NYSE: CHPT), a global leader in electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions, announced data insights from more than 100 million EV charging sessions the company enabled in the last year. The company’s own data combines with recently-released 2025 EV sales figures to suggest that charging infrastructure is not keeping up with driver demand.

ChargePoint’s data shows notable growth in both charging port expansion and utilization across the ChargePoint network and demonstrates that the number of EVs on the road is growing faster than the charging infrastructure needed to support them.

“ChargePoint believes we have entered the next phase of EV adoption. Nearly 60% of the 19.3 billion electric miles we’ve enabled in nearly 18 years took place over the most recent two years,” said Rick Wilmer, Chief Executive Officer at ChargePoint. “New EV sales are no longer the primary benchmark for charger demand, it is the total number of EVs on the road. Those installing chargers in 2026 should see accelerated ROI because of this utilization pressure.”

Automotive industry data indicates that global EV sales increased 20% in 20251, with European sales growing 33% and the U.S. experiencing its second-best year of EV sales ever2. ChargePoint is enabling more EV drivers than ever, with more than one million drivers using ChargePoint every month. Of note, vehicles identified as plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) in the ChargePoint mobile app account for 16% of all commercial AC charging sessions managed by the ChargePoint Platform.

Whether charging demand is evaluated by volume or utilization, the data shows that charging sessions are outpacing new charger installation. In 2025, the volume of charging sessions increased by 34%, despite a much smaller increase in the number of vehicles on the road. Even with 190,000 more charging ports becoming available to drivers on the ChargePoint network, charger utilization still outpaced the growth of new ports by almost 20%. This bottleneck may get worse in 2026 unless the rate of charger installation increases.

The increased pace of electrification comes with significant environmental benefits. Since 2007, ChargePoint estimates it has helped avoid the use of 714 million gallons of gasoline. In the process, it estimates it has helped drivers avoid more than $2 billion in gasoline costs and more than 4.5 million metric tons of GHG emissions. Today, ChargePoint gives EV drivers access to more than 900,000 roaming ports in addition to approximately 375,000 public and private ports that ChargePoint directly manages.

ChargePoint | https://www.chargepoint.com/

Energy Vault Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NRGV) (“Energy Vault”), a global leader in grid-scale energy storage solution infrastructure, and Crusoe, the industry’s first vertically-integrated AI infrastructure provider, announced a strategic framework agreement for the phased deployment of Crusoe Spark modular data centers at Energy Vault’s technology center in Snyder, Texas. The initial program is scalable up to 25 megawatts (MW) of total load to be operated inside Crusoe’s proprietary Spark modular AI factory product. The companies plan to begin deployments in 2026, enabling Crusoe Cloud to expand available computing capacity, including its new Managed Inference services, to meet customer demand. The initiative represents a significant expansion of Crusoe’s Spark program, a demonstration of rapidly deployable modular AI inference capacity, and a continuation of Crusoe’s commitment to innovative energy-first AI infrastructure development.

Under the multi-year framework, Energy Vault will provide modular “powered shell” infrastructure designed to enable fast, repeatable deployment of the electrical and mechanical systems required for high-density compute. Energy Vault will deploy Crusoe’s Spark units with the first deployment planned at Energy Vault’s technology realization site in Snyder, Texas. Together, Energy Vault and Crusoe will leverage the combination of a powered site and a modular deployment model, with the goal of materially reducing delivery timelines and enabling scalable expansion as customer demand grows.

The AI infrastructure market is increasingly defined by speed. As compute demand accelerates, customers face constraints that can impact delivery timelines – including power availability, interconnection timelines, electrical system complexity, and the operational requirements of high-density compute. Energy Vault’s modular “powered shell” deployments using Crusoe Spark modular AI factories, paired with its proven strengths in disciplined execution and digital operating capabilities, have been designed to significantly shorten time-to-capacity while maintaining high reliability for customers in the data center market.

“Crusoe is executing against a clear market imperative: customers need scalable compute delivered quickly and reliably,” said Robert Piconi, CEO and Chairman, Energy Vault. “Our role is to provide the critical energy infrastructure foundation – the ‘powered shell’ – that enables rapid installation and stable operations. This agreement marks an important milestone for Energy Vault as we establish a commercial platform in AI infrastructure to complement our Asset Vault platform while expanding our build-own-operate strategy into a new, high-growth segment.”

As a vertically integrated provider, Crusoe designs and manufactures its proprietary Crusoe Spark units to provide a consistent, high-quality AI infrastructure that modularly expands Crusoe Cloud capacity. By combining this modular technology with Energy Vault’s proven ability to engineer and operate mission-critical energy systems, the parties can meet Crusoe Cloud’s requirements for high-availability power and accelerated delivery timelines. This integrated approach is designed to leverage repeatable digital controls and modular infrastructure to significantly reduce time-to-capacity while ensuring the reliability and scalability essential for enterprise AI customers.

“By manufacturing Spark units and partnering with the talented team at Energy Vault, we are furthering Crusoe’s vision of vertically-integrated, energy-first AI infrastructure,” said Cully Cavness, Co-Founder, President and Chief Strategy Officer at Crusoe. “This project demonstrates the potential for modular AI factories across applications such as distributed low-latency inference, on-premise deployments, grouped training clusters, data-sovereignty deployments and many more potential use cases. We are also very proud to work alongside Energy Vault, a partner that shares our commitment to solving the power constraints of the AI era through focused execution and technology innovation.”

This strategic partnership with Crusoe is expected to strengthen Energy Vault’s comprehensive “Own & Operate” business model, supported by its Asset Vault platform, which has been expanded with today’s announcement to address the AI infrastructure market through long-term, contracted “powered shell” deployments. Energy Vault expects AI infrastructure deployments to deliver a step-change in unit economics, including meaningfully higher EBITDA per MW (~10-20x) installed relative to traditional infrastructure projects, driven by contracted cash flows, standardized and repeatable modular design, and strong demand for rapidly deployable compute capacity. This expansion is set to rapidly accelerate the pace and scale of EBITDA growth as deployments ramp and additional sites and customers are commercialized.

Energy Vault | www.energyvault.com 

Envision Energy, a global leader in green technology, is supporting Sri Lanka's clean energy transition as the 50MW Mannar Wind Power Project officially broke ground in the country's northern Mannar region. The groundbreaking ceremony was presided over by Honourable Anura Kumara Dissanayake, President of Sri Lanka, highlighting the project's strategic significance to the nation's renewable energy ambitions.

Developed and invested by HayWind One Limited, a subsidiary of Sri Lanka 's leading conglomerate Hayleys PLC, the project is a key addition to Sri Lanka's renewable energy portfolio. Envision Energy is supplying 10 EN-156/5.0MW wind turbines, delivering a total installed capacity of 50MW and generating approximately 207 million kWh of clean electricity annually. Designed to fully harness Mannar's high and stable wind resources, the turbines feature a hub height of 110 meters, enabling higher energy yield and improved project economics. The project marks Envision Energy's first utility-scale wind turbine order in Sri Lanka and is scheduled to be commissioned by March 2027, marking a significant milestone in its continued expansion across South Asia.

To address the region's coastal climate with high salinity and humidity, Envision has delivered a customised high anti-corrosion solution to enhance turbine durability and long-term reliability. The company will also provide full-lifecycle operations and maintenance services, ensuring safe and efficient performance throughout the project's 20-year design life.

Winston Xu, General Manager of Southeast Region at Envision Energy, said: "Sri Lanka holds a strategically important position in South Asia's energy transition, with highly competitive wind resources. This project marks a key milestone for the country's renewable energy development and Envision Energy's continued expansion in the region. By combining proven wind technology, tailored solutions for complex coastal environments, and global delivery and service capabilities, we aim to deliver higher energy output, enhanced reliability, and long-term value to Sri Lanka's national grid and communities."

Hasith Prematillake, Managing Director of Hayleys Fentons Limited, the parent company of HayWind One Limited, stated: "This project is about powering the lives of Sri Lankans with clean, homegrown energy. By bringing Envision's world-class technology to Sri Lanka for the first time, we are ensuring that the transition to green energy translates into more affordable electricity for people across the country. We hope this initiative will serve as a blueprint for future renewable energy projects in Sri Lanka."

Mr. Roshane Perera, Director/CEO of Hayleys Solar, added: "We recognise that world-class technology such as Envision's requires an equally world-class team to bring it to life. This is a significant undertaking, and we have mobilised our most experienced engineers and project managers to manage the complexities of the Mannar site. By applying our deep local expertise, we aim to ensure this infrastructure performs at its peak for decades. We are proud to demonstrate that Sri Lankan talent is fully capable of delivering renewable energy projects on a global scale."

Envision Energy | https://www.envision-group.com/

WeaveGrid, a grid-edge orchestration software provider for electric utilities, and SolarEdge Technologies, a global leader in smart energy technology, announced a partnership to support the participation of residential battery systems in utility grid programs, marking an important expansion of WeaveGrid's Distribution-Integrated System Capacity Orchestration (DISCO) platform beyond electric vehicles.

Originally designed to manage EV charging at scale, DISCO has evolved into a core utility platform for aligning customer energy use with distribution-level grid needs. Through this partnership, WeaveGrid is extending DISCO to include additional bulk system value from residential batteries, enabling utilities to work with a broader set of flexible, behind-the-meter assets through a single orchestration platform.

For SolarEdge, the partnership expands the ways its residential battery customers can participate in utility programs, including virtual power plants and other grid services, depending on utility offerings and customer enrollment. For utilities, it represents a more comprehensive approach to managing growing electrification and distributed energy resources using a unified, asset-level platform.

"As electrification accelerates, utilities need solutions that go beyond managing a single asset type," said Apoorv Bhargava, cofounder and CEO of WeaveGrid. "Partnering with SolarEdge reflects the next phase of DISCO — coordinating EVs and residential batteries together so utilities can manage local and system-wide grid needs while giving customers more opportunities to support the electric grid and receive financial incentives."

"As the number one provider of residential solar solutions in the US, with over 500MWh of storage participating in grid services, SolarEdge is excited to work with WeaveGrid as a foundational battery OEM partner," said Tamara Sinensky, Sr. Manager, Grid Services Product at SolarEdge. "This collaboration gives further access to utility programs that put more control and value directly into homeowners' hands—from optimizing when their batteries charge and discharge to earning incentives for supporting grid stability."

The partnership builds on WeaveGrid's growing ecosystem of OEM relationships and reinforces DISCO as a flexible platform designed to scale alongside new distributed energy resources as they are adopted by customers and utilities.

As DISCO continues to expand beyond EVs, WeaveGrid and SolarEdge are aligned in enabling utilities to integrate residential batteries in a way that supports grid needs while maintaining a positive customer experience.

WeaveGrid | https://www.weavegrid.com/

SolarEdge Technologies | https://www.solaredge.com/us/