EU solar growth slows, raising concerns for energy transition

Industry data revealed on Tuesday that the growth in solar power installations in Europe has slowed to 4% after years of double digit increases. This is raising concerns over the continent's transition to clean energy.

The findings are a blow to the European Union’s plans to expand rapidly its use of renewable energies – a key pillar in the bloc’s efforts to combat climate change and to end its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

SolarPower Europe, an industry association, said that the amount of solar power installed in Europe had increased by over 40% in 2021 and 2022 and by 50% in 2023.

This year 65.5 gigawatts of solar were installed. It was a record amount but only 4% higher than in 2023.

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, told that "the growth is substantially slowing".

In order to achieve its 2030 environmental goals, the EU must install 70GW new capacity every year.

As a result, the group has lowered its growth predictions for this year. The group's central outlook still predicts that Europe will have 816GW installed solar capacity by 2020 - sufficient to meet Europe’s green goals and a leap from today’s 338GW.

The group's "low-" outlook will now cause Europe to miss its targets for expanding renewable energy.

The reason for the slowdown is that many European power grids are not up to date enough to accommodate a larger share of renewable energy. Solar projects are often forced to wait for years before they can be connected to the power grid. Or, their energy production may even be curtailed to prevent overloading a struggling grid.

Hemetsberger stated that grid bottlenecks are becoming more common in Europe.

Exclusive data shared with us shows that home rooftop solar installations have decreased by almost 5GW per year, reaching 12.8GW by 2024.

SolarPower Europe attributes this to the fact that energy prices have fallen from their peak during Europe’s 2022 energy crises - reducing the incentives for consumers to purchase solar panels in order to reduce their bills.

For the first time in a decade, investments in European solar power projects have also fallen. (Reporting and editing by Kate Abnett, Lincoln Feast)

(source: Reuters)