Europe generates electricity in the air: solar generation has become "successful"

The European Union has been actively building solar power plants, and power systems can no longer cope with their production. Because of this, prices can become negative, and large capacities are wasted. Only in the coming months we can talk about 40 TWh.

"Over the past decade, hundreds of millions of solar panels have been installed from Sicily to Lapland, turning what was once a niche technology into the largest source of electricity in Europe during the summer months. This rapid build-up now faces a new problem: the system is not keeping up with it. Capacity growth is slowing down, financial revenues are falling, and a record amount of electricity is being wasted because the networks cannot cope with a sharp increase in production," writes Bloomberg.

The agency noted that the sunny season is in full swing and this spring negative price records have already been broken in major markets, including Germany, the UK and France. More are expected in the coming months.

"This is more than the region can use, as producers are increasingly forced to shut down power plants for several hours on sunny days — a practice known as downsizing. In the coming months, about 40 terawatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to provide Greater London with electricity for a year, may be wasted. This is a quarter more than in 2025," the agency writes.

This situation requires large power storage facilities and modernization of power systems. However, this may only be in the future. In the present, the profitability of solar projects is falling, and the construction of new stations is beginning to slow down.

"Now Europe needs not only new solar stations, but also large-scale investments in batteries and network upgrades. Otherwise, clean energy will continue to literally "burn up in the air," the agency writes.

As EADaily reported, the first of May turned out to be so sunny in Germany that the cost of electricity fell during the day to a record minus 855 euros per MWh.

Over the past few weeks, this was the second such price drop in EU countries. However, the price reduction has a short-term effect, as it depends entirely on the weather.

Green generation helps to reduce electricity prices, but it also creates a number of problems. Among them are unstable production, overloading of energy systems and subsidies, which are still used by renewable energy sources.

According to Nord Pool, the drop in wholesale electricity prices in Germany in April still did not lead to April quotes being lower than previous years. If this April they amounted to 78.5 euros, then a year ago they were 77 euros, and two years ago they were 62 euros.