For decades, the defining limitation of solar energy has been simple and stubborn: the sun goes down. No matter how cheap photovoltaic panels became, solar remained a daytime resource, with fossil fuels or hydropower filling the gap after dusk. That limitation may now be ending.

A new report from Ember, the energy thinktank, has declared that the "era of anytime solar has begun." The analysis, published this week, shows that battery storage technology has finally scaled to a point where it can systematically shift solar-generated power from sunny hours to the rest of the day — including nights, cloudy periods, and peak evening demand.

The numbers are striking. Globally, battery additions grew by 50% in 2026 alone. Across the world's power grids, this battery capacity is now diverting an average of 34% of new solar generation away from midday peaks and into non-sunny hours — fundamentally transforming how solar integrates with the grid.

Front-Runners and What They Show

Two countries are leading the charge. In Bulgaria, a remarkable 77% of new solar generation is being shifted to non-sunny hours via battery storage. In Chile, the figure stands at 76%. Both countries have moved aggressively to pair large solar farms with grid-scale lithium battery installations, effectively turning their solar capacity into a flexible, round-the-clock resource.

These front-runners demonstrate what becomes possible when battery costs fall far enough. In the past five years, the price of grid-scale battery storage has dropped roughly 90%, mirroring the trajectory that solar panels followed in the previous decade. The result is a technology that has gone from pilot project curiosity to essential infrastructure in just a few years.

What "Anytime Solar" Actually Means

Kostantsa Rangelova, Ember's global electricity analyst, described the shift in clear terms: "Cheap daytime solar has become the most powerful transformative force reshaping power grids globally, growing faster than any other source of electricity. Now batteries have become cheap and good enough to unlock the next stage of solar growth with anytime solar."

The implications run deep. Fossil fuels — particularly natural gas — have long served as the backup to intermittent renewables, running whenever wind and solar generation dipped. Battery storage challenges that role directly. A large enough battery fleet, charged during peak solar hours, can release its energy during evening demand spikes and overnight lows, shrinking the window during which fossil fuels are economically necessary.

A Grid Being Reinvented

For power system operators, the shift creates both opportunities and new challenges. On the opportunity side, cheap solar paired with cheap storage points toward electricity grids that are fundamentally cleaner and cheaper to run in the long term. Solar is now often the cheapest source of new electricity generation anywhere in the world; adding storage removes its biggest drawback.

The challenge is managing a more complex, distributed system, where generation and storage can come from thousands of installations across a grid, not just a handful of large plants. Several countries are updating grid codes and market rules to reward storage specifically — creating financial incentives for developers to pair panels with batteries.

Momentum Only Growing

Ember noted that 2026's battery surge is the beginning of a longer trend, not a one-year anomaly. Manufacturing capacity for grid-scale batteries is expanding rapidly in China, the United States, and Europe. As volumes rise and prices continue to fall, the economics of solar-plus-storage improve further.

What the Ember report makes clear is that for the first time in the history of solar power, the question is no longer whether the sun is shining. The sun always shines somewhere — and batteries can carry that energy to wherever it is needed, whenever it is needed.

The era of anytime solar has, by any measure, just begun.