Polski
The Sun Has Overtaken the Atom, and Batteries from Hungary Are Heading Toward Poland
This week in the renewable energy industry opens with a historic turning point in the global energy mix and closes with news that could genuinely affect the battery supply chain in our region. For the first time, solar power has durably overtaken nuclear in electricity generation, while Chinese giant CATL has launched cell production just across our southern border. Both stories show just how quickly the energy landscape is changing — a landscape we'll also be discussing at next year's trade fair.
01 · Global Market
Solar Has Overtaken Nuclear — and It's No Accident
The latest World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2026 delivers a result the industry has been waiting years for: global solar power has durably overtaken nuclear plants in terms of electricity generated [1]. The pace of this shift is striking — in 2025 alone, installed PV capacity grew by 510 GW, while global nuclear capacity actually fell by 0.5 GW over the same period. This isn't a temporary blip in the numbers; it's a lasting shift in where the world is putting its money.
The energy storage market looks equally impressive, having quite literally exploded in recent years. As much as 78% of all BESS systems currently in operation were installed between 2023 and 2025, and 2025 alone brought a record 104 GW of new storage capacity. This shows that solar and energy storage are now developing in tandem, each fueling the other — the more cheap solar power flows into the grid, the greater the demand for storing it.
Nuclear power, meanwhile, is still grappling with its classic problems — the average construction time for new reactors has now reached 11 years, and costs remain high, a problem that also applies to small modular reactor (SMR) technology, which was supposed to be the remedy for these issues. The contrast between the momentum of PV and storage and the pace of nuclear development goes a long way toward explaining why investors and grid operators are increasingly betting on distributed solutions that can be deployed quickly and scaled in stages.
This kind of growth in PV and energy storage wouldn't be possible without the right manufacturing base behind it — which brings us straight to the second big story of the week.
02 · Battery Production
CATL Starts Cell Production Just Across Poland's Border
With energy storage and electromobility demanding ever-larger quantities of batteries, it's no surprise that cell manufacturers are speeding up investment closer to their European customers. CATL, the world's largest battery maker, has just started cell production at its plant in Debrecen, Hungary [2]. The start-up followed a series of environmental and workplace-safety challenges reported in September 2026 during the plant's construction.
It's one of CATL's first major European factories and a key part of the company's strategy of locating production closer to European carmakers. For the Central European region, including Poland, the launch of the Debrecen plant is of key importance — it shortens the battery supply chain both for electromobility and for the growing energy storage segment discussed above.
In other words, the cells that will power the next wave of EVs and residential or industrial energy storage systems in our region are no longer being made in distant Asia, but just a few hundred kilometers from the Polish border. That changes the logic of investment planning — shorter supply chains mean lower risk of delays and potentially better terms for local integrators and energy storage manufacturers.
Summary
Summary
This week makes it clear which way the energy sector is heading: solar and energy storage are growing at a pace nuclear simply can't match, and battery production is increasingly setting up shop right next to Poland's borders. For the solar, energy storage, electromobility, and heat pump industries, this is a signal that the regional market for suppliers and components will keep changing fast in the years ahead. We'll be discussing live what these trends mean for Polish installers, investors, and manufacturers at Solar Energy Expo 2027 — so save the date today.
Invitation
Solar power is breaking records, and battery production is moving ever closer to our border — this is just the beginning of changes we'll feel firsthand. Want to know what global trends in PV, energy storage, and electromobility mean for your business? Let's meet at Solar Energy Expo 2027 and talk about it in person.
Solar Energy Expo 2027Footnotes
[1] e-magazyny.pl — https://e-magazyny.pl/aktualnosci/magazyny-energii-odmienily-rynek-prad-ze-slonca-po-raz-pierwszy-przebil-atom/[2] Caixin Global — https://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-09-30/catl-starts-battery-production-at-hungary-plant-102489959.html
This review was prepared by the Ptak Warsaw Expo editorial team.