Solar Power Floods Europe’s Grids as Heat Wave Lifts Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s biggest economies are seeing near-record amounts of solar power as a heat wave spreads across the southwest of the continent, boosting demand for electricity to keep people cool.

Solar met almost a quarter of all energy demand in five of Europe’s biggest power markets on Wednesday. The surge in electricity supply did little to ease rising prices that are being driven higher by climbing gas costs as Russia cuts some flows to Europe. Europeans are turning up the air conditioning to deal with rising temperatures which reached 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) in Madrid.  

The increase in low-carbon generation is the culmination of years of government policies to boost green capacity and accelerating this is seen as a key way to reduce reliance on Russian gas in the next decade. Renewable power records will habitually be broken in the coming years as more plants are built to meet Europe’s goals to cut emissions. By the middle of the next decade there will be times of day when all electricity demand can be met with renewables, according to network operators in the UK and Germany.

Temperatures are forecast to return to more normal levels by June 20 but the southeast of Europe will remain warmer than usual until the end of the month, according to Maxar Technologies LLC. Solar output is expected to be “very high” for most of the region next week, according to The Weather Company.

In Germany, solar power hit a record 36,848 megawatts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, according to data from the European Energy Exchange AG. That supplied more than 60% of demand at one point in the afternoon, according to data from Fraunhofer ISE.

Germany’s Solar Panels Generate More Power Than Ever Before

Germany added about 5.3 gigawatts of solar power capacity in 2021, 10% more than in the year before, but still much less than during its boom years around 2010, according to the solar industry association. About 10% of Germany’s annual electricity consumption is met by solar generation and the government’s goal is to expand capacity to 200 gigawatts by 2030 from 59 gigawatts now.

In Spain, the European country with the greatest potential for solar generation, power from the sun provided about 23% of electricity demand just after 2 p.m. on Wednesday, according to grid operator data. 

The country plans to rapidly grow its capacity in the coming years to reduce its dependence on expensive gas and coal. Spanish solar capacity is set to grow by 27% this year and more than triple that amount by the end of the decade, according to BloombergNEF.

At the 2pm peak France was getting 9 gigawatts from the sun or 19% on Wednesday, just shy of the 10.8 gigawatt record in April. In the UK solar generation was providing enough power to meet about 23% of demand while it was 27% in Italy, according to grid operator data. 

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