Record solar outputs across Europe this year

As summer temperatures around Europe reached their highs, solar outputs smashed records.

In the UK, solar broke the record for weekly output between 21-28 June, producing 533 gigawatt-hours of energy. The spike in output led allowed solar to overtake gas as the number-one energy source in the country, said the European PV industry body SolarPower Europe.

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In July, solar also reached a new high in Germany, with a record 6.17 terawatt-hours of production, SolarPower Europe said. Denmark registered 361 hours of sunshine in May and an increase of 33 percent in solar electricity production, an all-time high for the country.

“In the Netherlands, a sunny July saw 75% more solar power generation than in the same month last year,”stated SolarPower Europe CEO James Watson in a press note.

“One of the side effects of this year’s heatwave has been a record amount of solar electricity production,” he said. “In country after country, solar has set impressive new milestones.”

Policy director, Aurelie Beauvais, said large-scale solar filled in for conventional generation as the 2018 European heatwave brought thermal power plants to a standstill.

“In France and Germany, coal and nuclear power plants had to be powered down as they could no longer use the huge volumes of water needed to cool their power stations, resulting in intermittent supply,” she added.

Solar kept Europe’s power grids stable as the output from these thermal plants waned, she reported.

While most solar’s record-breaking performance in Europe this summer is due to the excessively hot and dry weather, said to be linked to global warming, it is also true that Europe now has more solar capacity than ever before.

The European solar market grew by 28.4% in 2017, SolarPower Europe figures show. This brought the region’s total installed capacity to 107 gigawatts.

Capacity growth alone may have accounted for most of the records set this summer, said Josefin Berg, Research and Analysis manager for solar and energy storage at IHS Markit. “If more is getting installed you’re going to get more production, right?” she said.

Furthermore, hot weather would degrade PV performance rather than improve it, she said. At the height of the heatwave in July, even parts of the Arctic Circle saw temperatures rise above 30°C.

With costs hitting an average low of EUR 43.30 per megawatt-hour in Germany’s latest solar tradedin December 2017, and the European Commission ending five years of trade barriers on Asian panels, the industry is braced for increased growth.

Europe has been in a transition phase over the last couple of years, and is now entering the next growth phase, as the European Union has agreed on a number of positive legislations which will mean increased deployment of solar.The growth in installed capacity is likely to result in further records of solar power generation across Europe.

SolarPower Europe expects Germany to add more than 2 gigawatts of capacity this year, putting it back at the level seen during the country’s solar boom half a decade ago. French installations are also expected to breach the gigawatt barrier this year.

According to SolarPower Europe’s median growth numbers, the total installed solar capacity across Europe could rise to 116 gigawatts this year and 129 gigawatts in 2019.

Germany will surpass 45 gigawatts of solar this year, and next year Italy and France will hit 20 gigawatts and 10 gigawatts, respectively.

Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables solar analyst Rishab Shrestha commented: “Solar as a share of generation will certainly increase in the future given the capacity forecasts.”