From 17-18 February 2026, members of the operation and maintenance (O&M), asset management, and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) communities, attended SolarPower Europe's annual Solar Quality Summit Europe event, co-organised with Intersolar.
The event aims to advance the long-term quality of Europe's solar projects. This year's conference focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in solar PV operations, taking a closer look at the opportunities it brings for raising the quality of solar projects across their lifecycle.
Dr. Florian Wessendorf, Managing Director at Solar Promotion GmbH International opened the conference, emphasising that; "the Solar Quality Summit Europe Conference has been designed to help stakeholders exchange ideas and insights that strengthens the resilience and long-term performance of solar projects in Europe and beyond."
During the first Smarter Solar, Stronger Systems: How AI Delivers on Quality?' session, SolarPower Europe CEO Walburga Hemetsberger set the tone, highlighting how; "Europe is facing unprecedented challenges... Solar quality, reliability and performance are becoming ever more important. AI can deliver on this quality!"
In the afternoon, SolarPower Europe Press and Communications Advisor Thérèse O Donoghue moderated a session with Miguel Herrero, Senior Market Advisor at PVcase; Andrew Morse, Technical Adviser at Straylight Ventures; and Lennart van Walsum, Director Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa (EMEIA) & Americas, Global Solar Council. During the discussion, Miguel stated; "ask not what AI can do for you, ask what you can do for AI... the SUPERNOVA project is tackling just this, looking at the re-use of design files and robot-friendly design."
Ending day 1, SolarPower Europe Project Officer Niki Fodor launched our Technical Due Diligence Best Practice Guidelines. The report provides an industry-first unified framework for assessing the technical, legal, environmental, financial viability, and bankability of hybrid utility-scale solar and battery storage projects from initial planning, through all project stages. Launching the report, Niki noted; "beyond the report's technical excellence, it shows the collaborative nature of the solar industry. I'm grateful to the experts who have contributed."
The second day of the conference began with two parallel sessions on: The Hidden Costs of Small Failures: Designing Reliability at the Component Level,' and Inverter Reliability & Performance Protection.' The inverters session discussed efficient, cost-effective and timely methods of ensuring compliance with cybersecurity regulations, while continuing to rely on global supply chains.
Afterwards, the SUPERNOVA project organised it's third workshop of the event on Next-Generation Forecasting: AI-Driven Solar & Grid Predictions.' During the session Grazia Barchi from Eurac Research asserted how; "forecasting is important in reducing curtailment & activating flexibility. We need to examine how forecasting can be a real strategic asset, and what role AI and data will play in the process." SUPERNOVA organised two discussions on day 1 of the event: AI Agents in PV plant-integrated monitoring systems,' and Predictive Maintenance in Action.'The Horizon Europe funded project is aiming to establish quality and a high-performance for solar PV projects.
Afterwards, SolarPower Europe Senior Market Analyst Antonio Arruebo Lacleta moderated session on upgrading solar and storage systems, discussing how targeted interventions can transform legacy assets into high-performing, future-ready power plants. In his opening intervention, Antonio outlined how; "we already have a substantial fleet of solar and battery storage capacity. Upgrading actions like revamping can transform legacy assets into high-performing, future-ready solar power plants."
After lunch, Calin Sas, Solar Reliability Engineer at Sunrock, launched our EPC Best Practice Guidelines Version 3.0. The third edition of the outlines best practices to improve the quality of large-scale hybrid solar PV and battery storage systems. Launching the report stressed that; "guaranteeing quality is a long-term process... These latest EPC guidelines can be used to strengthen hybrid solar PV + battery operations and services."
Closing our event, Gofran Chowdhury, Head of Innovation at 3E, noted how; "AI as a tool has shown impressive capacity in solar PV + battery systems. The gatekeeper is digitalisation, and here, data quality is key."
Thank you to our co-organiser Intersolar, and our Spanish partners UNEF, the Spanish Solar Association, for supporting, and to all of our event sponsors.
One key takeaway from our event, quality data = reliable and high-performing solar PV and battery plants.
We look forward to seeing you all next year, and continuing our discussions on everything solar quality!
