The sun accounted for one tenth of the EU's energy consumption in June and July. This is shown in a survey in which the 27 EU Member States together generated 39 TwH of solar electricity, which is a record number. This compares with 28 TwH in the corresponding period in 2018. Reuters writes in an article, referring to a report by the climate organization Ember.
The Netherlands, Germany and Spain are at the top of the report. In both the Netherlands and Germany, 17% of energy production comes from solar electricity and the majority of EU countries account for huge increases compared to the 2018 report.
A collective increase
Most countries have individually broken their own record records, according to Ember's report. The production of solar power by the Netherlands and Spain has doubled, but it is Hungary that has taken the biggest steps with a quadrupling of the share of solar electricity. They have gone from three percent in 2018 to nearly 12 percent in 2021, making solar power the largest source of energy. Estonia has also stepped into sustainable electricity production, from the figure being close to zero in 2018 to sailing up to close to ten percent. The only country that has taken a notable step backwards is Belgium, which reports a reduction in the share of solar electricity by just over 1%.
Sweden has not reported statistics in time to be able to participate in the report and Austria was excluded due to unreliable data.
Positive numbers - but must be even better
On the other hand, the increases are not enough to reach the 2030 climate targets. At present, solar power in the EU is increasing by 14 TwH per full year on average, which is a figure that must double to 30 TwH per year in order to achieve the targets. In addition, coal power as a whole remains the leading source of energy with 14% of electricity generation in the EU. What speaks for the rapid development of solar electricity is the fall in prices: in ten years, the price of solar electricity has gone from USD 381 per mWh in 2010 to as low as USD 57 per mWh in 2020. That is, according to the report, half the price of fossil fuels from existing plants in several major EU countries, such as Germany, the UK, Italy, France and Spain.
