Solar power generation is rising in Europe, new data from energy market analyst EnAppSys has shown.
In the first six months of this year, generation from this power source across Europe amounted to 68TWh – up from the 59TWh in the corresponding period in 2019 and 70% higher than the 2015 figure of 40TWh.
In the second quarter of 2020, solar output hit a record 47.6TWh – up 19% from the previous peak in Q2 2018.
The rise was attributed to the increase in solar capacity across Europe, as countries across the continent attempt to improve their environmental footprint by producing a greater proportion of electricity from renewable sources.
This rise in capacity slowed between 2017 and 2019, with solar generation totalling 38.3TWh, 40.1TWh and 39.1TWh in Q2 of 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively. But this year it has risen again significantly, raising the question: what is happening in 2020 that was not happening over the previous three years?
Fifteen years ago, solar farms provided only a very minor contribution towards overall European power demand, with only a few GWs of solar projects across the entire continent. These provided only a nominal share of overall power production.
By 2011 solar was in the middle of a transformational phase and over a five-year period from 2009 to 2013, levels of solar capacity in Europe exploded from around 15GW at the start of 2009 to around six times that figure by the start of 2013.
