I went to Solar & Storage Live 2026 at the NEC expecting to see plenty of solar panels, inverters and home batteries.

What I wasn’t expecting was just how many companies are now developing relatively simple AC-coupled, plug-in and balcony solar battery systems.

I’ve recently been testing the EcoFlow STREAM AC5000, but walking around the show made me realise just how much competition there already is. Sigenergy, Zendure, Jackery, Anker SOLIX, Dyness, Hoymiles, Growatt, Marstek and many more are developing their own approaches to solar and home energy storage.

And that’s before getting into some of the more unusual technology I found, including 2D Nano’s work using graphene and cement for energy storage.

The frustrating part for those of us in the UK is that much of this choice isn’t available here.

Great Britain has now opened the door to compliant plug-in solar systems up to 800W, but plug-in battery storage wasn’t included in those changes. Speaking to manufacturers at the show, it was clear that markets such as Germany and the Netherlands already have access to products and configurations that we simply don’t get here.

In this video, I’ll take you around some of the technology that caught my attention and show you just how much choice could eventually be coming to the UK.

This isn’t an in-depth review or recommendation of the products shown. It’s a look at what I discovered during a few hours at Solar & Storage Live and where I think this rapidly developing part of the home-energy market could be heading.

Products and companies featured include:
EcoFlow
Sigenergy
MSI
2D Nano
Zendure
Jackery
SamDuo
Anker SOLIX
MOVA
Dyness
Sunsynk
Fogstar Energy
SolaX
Fox ESS
Hoymiles
Growatt
Indevolt
Canadian Solar
Marstek
Tesla

If you’re interested in solar, home batteries, EVs and reducing your home energy costs, subscribe to Considered for more real-world testing and analysis.

#HomeBattery #SolarEnergy #SolarStorage

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