Intersolar & Energy Storage North America 2026 Flagship Event Coverage

IESNA 2026 Flagship Recaps & Coverage

Catch up on impactful discussions from the Intersolar & Energy Storage North America 2026 Flagship event. Read conference session and keynote recaps, plus watch podcast episodes from our partner, SunCast Media, featuring host Nico Johnson as he interviews expert speakers and industry leaders, recorded live from the Hub stage.

Pre-Conference Summit

Expert Strategies for Affordable Solar Construction

During this pre-conference summit, five industry veterans walked through the case for a phased, risk-based approach to solar development — one where investing more upfront in due diligence prevents far costlier surprises during construction. With subsidies on hold and margins tightening, the overall message was that smart cost discipline starts well before a shovel hits the ground.

Keynotes

State Level Blueprints for a Clean and Resilient Energy Economy

With federal clean energy policy in flux, this opening keynote made one thing clear: the states aren’t waiting. Energy leaders from New York, Massachusetts, and beyond described how states are filling the void left by federal rollbacks, and what it will take to sustain momentum on affordability, reliability, and grid investment.

Power by Association — Mobilizing Collective Action for Clean Energy

With clean energy interests increasingly fragmented, this keynote tackled the harder question of how to turn competing priorities into coordinated advocacy. Leaders from SEIA, American Clean Power, Advanced Energy United, and the LDES Council shared how they’re building coalitions — and holding them together in a politically fractured moment.

Conference Sessions

Navigating C&I Solar and Storage from Concept to Commissioning

The C&I solar and storage market is growing fast, but getting projects across the finish line means navigating a still-maturing storage supply chain, execution pitfalls, and a financing landscape adjusting to a post-ITC world. Panelists shared hard-won practical guidance from real projects on everything from procurement strategy to interconnection hurdles.

The Future of U.S. Solar Manufacturing

With utility-scale solar generation forecast to grow 17% in 2026, the central question for domestic manufacturers is whether that capacity gets built here or abroad. Panelists from major U.S. manufacturers examined how FEOC guidance, tariffs, and the safe harbor competitive dynamic are shaping the domestic manufacturing landscape.

HR1, Trade Rules, and the New Reality for Renewables

Against a backdrop of shifting federal policy, this session tackled the two most pressing concerns on developers’ minds: Treasury’s new FEOC guidance and ongoing trade investigations targeting solar imports. Panelists worked through the practical compliance and liability implications, and what it all means for project timelines and costs.

New Paths, New Pressures — Financing Solar and Storage in a Post-ITC Era

With the ITC phasing out, the solar and storage industry is navigating one of its most significant financing inflection points in years. Panelists broke down how developers are sorting through FEOC compliance, safe harbor mechanics, and the growing case for making projects financially viable without federal tax credits.

The Road to Fleet Electrification & Strategies for a Successful Transition

Fleet electrification is less a single decision than a full systems transformation, and this session focused on the unglamorous realities of scaling from pilots to programs. Panelists used telematics data, real deployment examples, and lessons from the early EV charging buildout to steer fleets away from the most common and costly mistakes.

Anticipating the Data Center Buildout

The AI-driven data center boom is reshaping the grid at a pace that traditional planning models can’t keep up with. Panelists dug into how to separate genuine load growth signals from noise, what transmission constraints mean for project siting, and how solar and storage developers can position themselves ahead of the buildout.

SunCast Podcast: Live from the Hub Stage

Our partner SunCast Media brought their microphones to the Hub Stage, right in the middle of the action on the exhibit hall floor, for candid conversations with some of the sharpest minds in the industry. Listen to the full episodes below.

SEIA’s Next Chapter | Solar, Storage and Focus for 2026 — Darren Van’t Hof

SEIA Interim President & CEO Darren Van’t Hof discusses why solar has already won the cost battle and what comes next, from permitting bottlenecks freezing capital to the $25 billion storage opportunity on the horizon in 2026.

Amy Harder on the New Rules of Power — Amy Harder

Axios energy correspondent Amy Harder breaks down how AI and the data center boom are driving electricity demand growth for the first time in decades — reshaping capital flows, power markets, and the politics of energy in real time.

The Energy Signals the Industry Is Missing — Darrell Proctor, Julian Spector & Sammy Roth

Three of the most plugged-in energy journalists, Canary Media’s Julian Spector, POWER Magazine’s Darrell Proctor, and Climate-Colored Goggles’ Sammy Roth, compare notes on the signals shaping the market right now, from AI-driven clean energy investment and the rise of domestic solar manufacturing to grid interconnection bottlenecks and shifting climate narratives.

Clean Energy Is Winning on Cost — So Why Is It Losing the Narrative? — Sammy Roth

Independent journalist Sammy Roth argues that clean energy’s real challenge isn’t cost or technology — it’s culture. He explores why strong economics alone haven’t been enough to win public trust, and what it would actually take to build the kind of cultural staying power that legacy energy sources have had for generations.

How Energy Narratives Shape Capital — A Former WSJ Reporter’s Perspective — Russell Gold

Former Wall Street Journal energy reporter Russell Gold, now EVP of Strategic Communications at T1 Energy, reflects on what crossing to the industry side revealed: why clean energy still struggles to tell a compelling reliability story, and how narrative shapes where capital flows more than most people realize.