Solar Was the Leading Source of Electricity In the EU Last Month (www.cbc.ca) 70
In June 2025, solar power became the leading source of electricity in the EU for the first time, surpassing nuclear and wind, while coal hit a record low. CBC reports: Solar generated 22.1 percent of the EU's electricity last month, up from 18.9 percent a year earlier, as record sunshine and continued solar installations pushed output to 45.4 terawatt hours. Nuclear followed closely at 21.8 percent and wind contributed 15.8 percent of the mix. At least 13 EU countries, including Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, recorded highest-ever monthly solar generation, [data from energy think tank Ember showed on Thursday.]
Coal's share of the EU electricity mix fell to a record low of 6.1 percent in June, compared to 8.8 percent last year, with 28 percent less electricity generated than a year earlier. Germany and Poland, which together generated nearly 80 percent of the 27-country bloc's coal-fired electricity in June, also saw record monthly lows. Coal accounted for 12.4 per cent of Germany's electricity mix and 42.9 percent of Poland's. Spain, nearing a full phase-out of coal, generated just 0.6 per cent of its electricity from coal in the same period.
Wind power also set new records in May and June, rebounding after poor wind conditions resulted in a weak start to the year. But despite record solar and wind output in June, fossil fuel usage in the first half of 2025 grew 13 percent from last year, driven by a 19 percent increase in gas generation to offset weak hydro and wind output earlier in the year. Electricity demand in the EU rose 2.2 percent in the first half of the year, with five of the first six months showing year-on-year increases. The next challenge for Europe's power system is to expand battery storage and grid flexibility to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels during non-solar hours, Ember said in the report.
Coal's share of the EU electricity mix fell to a record low of 6.1 percent in June, compared to 8.8 percent last year, with 28 percent less electricity generated than a year earlier. Germany and Poland, which together generated nearly 80 percent of the 27-country bloc's coal-fired electricity in June, also saw record monthly lows. Coal accounted for 12.4 per cent of Germany's electricity mix and 42.9 percent of Poland's. Spain, nearing a full phase-out of coal, generated just 0.6 per cent of its electricity from coal in the same period.
Wind power also set new records in May and June, rebounding after poor wind conditions resulted in a weak start to the year. But despite record solar and wind output in June, fossil fuel usage in the first half of 2025 grew 13 percent from last year, driven by a 19 percent increase in gas generation to offset weak hydro and wind output earlier in the year. Electricity demand in the EU rose 2.2 percent in the first half of the year, with five of the first six months showing year-on-year increases. The next challenge for Europe's power system is to expand battery storage and grid flexibility to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels during non-solar hours, Ember said in the report.
In other news: Flashlights not needed during dayli (Score:1)
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We're racing in the opposite direction thanks to our president.
America is behind mainly because of Biden's tariffs on imported PV panels, in a failed attempt to build a domestic solar industry.
Trump is hostile to anything green, but he's mostly just blathering with little real-world effect.
Re: In the mean time... (Score:4, Insightful)
Trump started the solar tariffs in 2018.
Biden merely extended them.
Both were misguided.
Corruption from fossil fuel industry interests is unfortunately bipartisan.
The tariffs were never going to spur solar manufacturing in the US, only increase prices.
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False. Even the AI knows better.
"In 2012, the Obama administration imposed tariffs on Chinese solar panels and cells. These tariffs were a response to complaints from a U.S. manufacturer, SolarWorld, alleging that Chinese companies were selling solar products in the U.S. at unfairly low prices (dumping) and benefiting from unfair subsidies. The tariffs, initially ranging from 30% to 250% depending on the manufacturer and product, aimed to "level the playing field" for American businesses and workers. "
The S
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Very True
Re: In the mean time... (Score:1)
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But they can still be useful when you are looking under the bed or in the back of a closet,
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I'm sure if you don't understand it you may come to that conclusion. But what I love most about your post is that the solution the problem you came up with is right there in the analogy. Unless your flashlight is coal powered that is.
Battery Penetration (Score:2)
In Sweden I am surprised there isn't more battery storage at a neighborhood substation level. The way they do their underground distribution (I think much of northern Europe is the same), they have small enclosures every 1km or so with switchgear and a 380V transformer; these types of locations are almost ideal for smaller battery systems, especially given how over-paneled most homes with solar are. I wish it was that easy for utilities to add distribution-level batteries in the US as it would really open
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The benefit is more for distribution issues than diurnal loading-- it helps reduce loads on the11kV side.
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Here in the Netherlands it's partly because of the (EU) competition rules. Even though we desperately need it to solve localised transmission capacity problems (those problems are inherently peak problems, so storage solves them trivially).
I suspect it's partly because of OCD from the engineers too. "In a couple of years we will have more transport and more centralised storage is more efficient, I want to do it right the first time instead of ending up with a patchwork of hacks and wasting precious manpower
In Germany (Score:3)
In Germany most battery storage is actually at a household level. The last numbers I've seen claimed that there was 5 times more capacity in private storage than public one. This is because selling electricity to the grid only gets you about 6-8 cents per kWh, while buying electricity costs you more than 25 cents per kWh.
Since battery prices are low, particularly if you use less energy dense batteries, it just makes sense to store as much energy as feasible. However commercial operators are slowly ramping
And the price? (Score:2)
Okay, what's the cost per kWh on average for residential and/or commercial power in the EU vs 5-10 years ago?
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Price is up from about 20 eurocents to nearly 30 eurocents:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/... [europa.eu]
But that is not because of the solar, that is mostly because of Germany decided to shut down nuclear by 2022 because of Fukushima and because Russia stopped sending gas via pipelines in 2022 (before the pipes exploded). These two events at the same time caused energy crisis to Germany.
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Nice direct and extreme lie you have there. The actual reason for the price increase is that France had to buy all electricity it could get their hands on in peak hours, as a lot of their nukes were down.
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Here is a diagram that shows how Germany transformed from peak 50 TWh produces into -20 TWh consumer. Drop happens in 2023 and 2024. The drop from the peak is about 70 TWh and even the drop from 2022 is about 40 TWh, and trend looks like it is going for worse. And it is permanent problem as nuclear plants are shut down for good and gas most likely never returns.
https://www.cleanenergywire.or... [cleanenergywire.org]
Here is France in year 2022 they had a drop of about 30 TWh in their exports, which looks like a one time event and
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Yes, that's net exports.
So that graph shows gross exports, not net. In 2022, they imported 57 TWh and exported 40.5 TWh, making France a net importer of 16.5 TWh in 2022. [rte-france.com]
Since nuclear is not dispatchable, France is lucky to have a neighbor who can shut off power plants to prevent the grid from getting overloaded. To reduce the nee
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Why are you citing fake news sites, when you can simply link the correct site?
This: https://www.energy-charts.info... [energy-charts.info] is the official EU portal for all about electricity (and other energy) in the EU.
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That diagram is crap because it does not show what is really happening. Yes, France did export in off-hours at dumping-prices or even having to pay for it. Then they needed to import again at high-usage times when they were paying though the nose. Some understanding how the electricity market works required. Hence total energy flow does not even matter. What matters is what they paid and what they got paid. And the former was massively higher than the latter and that drove prices up all over Europe.
Seriousl
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I can and all the experts here (Europe) do. Because France kept buying electricity at peak-hours at significantly higher prices than normal. Remember those Old German coal plants that were kept up? The electricity they produced when to France because under the European grid rules everybody that could had to supply electricity to keep the French part of the grid from crashing.
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*sigh* No, that's not how grid pricing works. Price is set on merit order on the entire mainland europe (most expensive form of instantly dispatchable load to stabilise the grid) and that is gas. It doesn't matter if France's reactors are running 100% or are completely shutdown, the price of electricity paid for production is set by natural gas producers since they provide dispatchable load.
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What are you smoking? Prices for the European electricity spot-market (and that is what we are talking here) are set by auction conducted every 15 minutes. 15 Minutes was the grid load planning interval. Now it is 10 minutes. You are still wrong for the regular market, because these are long-term commitments, and if you cannot deliver, the fines are huge.
Seriously, you really know nothing, and not in a cool way.
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Germany decided 2000 to shut down nuclear.
Not 2022.
2022 was 3 years ago. Are you fucking stupid? Or is that a stupid typo? Has nothing to do with Fukushima.
The exit was set to stone LONG before Fukushima.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:And the price? (Score:4, Insightful)
The era of cheap electricity from Russian gas has ended. The EU has to find other sources.
Renewables are probably the best way to do that right now, while increasing its independence from outside countries. Because those countries surely use that energy as a political lever.
Weaning off of oil is the next objective.
Giving money to authoritarian states isn't the right way to lead them to democracy, we've now learned that.
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Okay, what's the cost per kWh on average for residential and/or commercial power in the EU vs 5-10 years ago?
Completely unrelated to the cost of solar production. In the EU the cost of electricity on the grid is set based on the cost of gas virtually exclusively. The price of electricity is set by a merit order system which means at any given time the cost of electricity is based on the most expensive dispatchable system capable of delivering stability services. In the EU gas peaking plants sets this price for over 90% of the time. It's why people are building solar in the first place: it's amazing to be able to
What will the numbers be in December? (Score:3)
Getting high solar output during summer is nice, but they're getting 15-20 hours of daily sunlight in the higher latitudes.
It'll be interesting to see the solar number in mid-Winter, when the days are 6 hours long and the sun is low on the horizon. I suspect coal use will ramp up to keep the lights on and the heat pumps running.
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Northern Europe has a lot of wind turbines, and the winds are stronger in winter.
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Getting high solar output during summer is nice, but they're getting 15-20 hours of daily sunlight in the higher latitudes. It'll be interesting to see the solar number in mid-Winter, when the days are 6 hours long and the sun is low on the horizon. I suspect coal use will ramp up to keep the lights on and the heat pumps running.
Northern Europe has a lot of wind turbines, and the winds are stronger in winter.
On top of that N-Europe [worldatlas.com] (Blue) also has a lot of hydroelectric and in some regions geothermal power. I'm afraid MAGA drones will not be deriving any enjoyment from seeing the lights in N-Europe go out next winter because the sun ain't shining nor will they see coal use ramping up because nobody in N-Europe uses any significant amounts of coal.
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and the winds are stronger in winter.
Actually no. Wind speeds are typically higher in the spring and autumn and lower during summer AND winter, at least in northern Europe. These are averages of course. Even in winter there are many calm periods with little electricity generation from wind. Wishful thinking doesn't keep the lights on.
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Just click the link the summary:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/scienc... [www.cbc.ca]
You don't need to read the text, there is a good diagram that show you the relation between solar and wind. If you merge the lines from wind and solar, you get pretty straight line.
The diagram will also give answer to your question "how much electricity sun provides during mid winter". At lowest point it is about 4.18% of total electricity. I really recommend checking that diagram out, it is very informative.
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What is holding you back US? Scared? That's ok, no guts no glory though
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I'm not sure what your point is. Are you under the impression that any grid is optimally designed on a single energy source? It's not December, so why waste the coal to make electricity now with something that would be better to use in the depth of the dark winter?
Even if you can reduce carbon emissions just during the summer you've already made an improvement.
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I live half-way up the UK at about 54 degrees north. My panels produce virtually nothing between late October and mid February.
This year has been unusually good for solar production but it usually peaks when I don't need it. Will probably look into getting a battery, though despite how I keep hearing about how cheap they are now someone needs to tell the installers.
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It's within 1 order of magnitude of having enough solar to use hydrogen for storage.
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That's the great question. Locally in Washington the 24 hour capacity factor in winter is usually under 10% between the short days and the heavy overcast that comes with the inversions. 7% is a pretty good number. So take nameplate and divide by 14.
Those same inversions bring in calm winds too, so you don't get much from wind. The good news is those conditions limit night-time lows to 15 F, and the daytime highs are around 25 F.
Cash (Score:2)
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just don't ask me to get a personal loan
If the interest on the loan is less than the savings on your electric bill, you come out ahead even with borrowed money.
Some solar companies provide financing and guarantee a positive return.
Re: Cash (Score:2)
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But I have to make an appointment with the bank.
The solar company can arrange the financing and do all the paperwork.
You might get a better deal from your bank, but you don't hafta go that route.
not be able to get a loan for fixing my car if it is needed.
If you own a home (why else would you buy solar panels?) but need to borrow money to fix your car, then your finances are severely mismanaged. Perhaps you should ride a bicycle while you build up your savings.
Re: Cash (Score:2)
Re: Cash (Score:2)
Everybody in Holland still gets scammed (Score:2)
by the utility companies and has to pay for feeding back solar into the grid. =/
Re: Everybody in Holland still gets scammed (Score:2)
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It's not a scam, it's basic supply and demand market reality. You had your electricity contract subsidised for a while, that only works when you're an outlier, not when it's common. Net metering is abolished nearly everywhere once solar reaches a certain market share as it is little more than a market subsidy. Had you paid wholesale spot prices from the beginning you would never have bought your solar panels.
In any case go buy a battery. They are getting very cheap, you can install them yourself and it will
Lowest ever cost per kilowatt hr Right? Right? (Score:2)
Re:Lowest ever cost per kilowatt hr Right? Right? (Score:4, Informative)
Has the cost gone down compared to say France that gets most of its energy from Nuclear.
France didn't get most of their power from nuclear last month because fun fact, much of the nuclear capacity was shut down as it couldn't cope with the summer capacity.
Also if you need to compare solar energy with an energy source that is not just subsidised but had to have the main player nationalised due to bankruptcy I think you've lost before you even started playing. Yeah ask the French government who had to buy out its entire industry just how "cheap" it was.
And yes solar is now so cheap that it is cheaper to to build enough capacity with panels + batteries to compete with coal (not gas, gas isn't cheap in Europe) over a complete 24 hour period during the summer.
UK cost per kilowatt hr is $0.35USD. French cost per kilowatt of power is $0.26USD.
None of these prices have anything to do with cost of production. The overwhelming majority of a retail bill (or even wholesale bill) is made up of taxes, transmission fees, and connection fees. The actual cost of nuclear power in France is between $0.06 - $0.10/kWh (with the most expensive being thanks to the LCO contribution by recently wildly expensive projects), vs grid scale solar is currently around $0.03/kWh
All you're really comparing with your numbers is how much the government charge different rates and how much utilities charge for maintenance / profit margins.
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Bottom line you pay more for electricity not less than nearly everywhere else in the world.
Bottom line is we have always paid more even back before solar was a thing.
The point is that those pushing renewables promised lower costs. That has not happened.
That's because that's now how grid pricing works. Grid pricing is based on a merit order system which means the price is set by the most expensive form of dispatchable electricity available (and the reason for this is otherwise there's no incentive to keep a grid stable). In Europe this is gas. Until we have a grid that is entirely made of batteries, it will still be gas as solar / wind are not and were never billed as dispatchable f
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At least in Germany, the system was designed so that end-user price would not go down to avoid a rebound effect, i.e. to avoid more consumption due to lower prices. So low end-user prices were never a real goal.
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Go away, shill. Your responses are recycled FUD from the fossil fuel sector: cherry-picking, poisoning the well, goalpost-shifting, and other tiresome rhetorical sleight-of-hand tactics, including a classic strawman that reveals your real intent—none of which actually address the GP’s fair question about real-world pricing.
France didn't get most of their power from nuclear last month because fun fact, much of the nuclear capacity was shut down as it couldn't cope with the summer capacity.
Yes, heatwaves can reduce reactor output due to cooling water limitations. But on an annual basis, France is still overwhelmingly nuclear-powered. One anomalous month doesn
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The fuck are you talking bout. There's nothing shilling about pointing out that nuclear isn't the answer as much as a diverse grid with many sources of power is.
EDF’s financial crisis was largely due to poor management
Indeed. I suppose that financial crises and bailout of virtually every nuclear company is the same right? They all just are poor at management, it couldn't be that the underlying cost structure doesn't support nuclear power as a viable source of energy unless it's heavily subsidised (a point agreed by the IAEA - are they a fossil shill too?). At the
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Would like to see how the cost per kilowatt hr is tracking with the percent of solar production. The renewable energy advocates said the renewables would be the cheapest form of energy. Were they right? Has the cost gone down compared to say France that gets most of its energy from Nuclear. UK cost per kilowatt hr is $0.35USD. French cost per kilowatt of power is $0.26USD. Yep that solar power is getting that cost right down there.
I’m just as exasperated. You’re asking the right question, and it does deserve a real answer.
The renewable energy community often cites Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) to show that solar and wind are now the cheapest new sources of generation—and that’s true. Utility-scale solar is routinely under $0.03–$0.05/kWh in auction data across Europe. But your point was about end-user price, and that’s where things get more complicated.
Retail electricity prices reflect more than
This drops to 5% in winter (Score:4, Informative)
If you look at the actual chart provided by Ember (and linked in OP's post) you'll see the solar values are directly tied to the season. By December the energy production of these vast solar arrays drops well below that of even coal.
Nuclear is the only consistent energy source in the EU and requires far less destruction of land than solar. They would do well to invest in nuclear right now to supply future energy projects. The past trend to decommission functional nuclear plants was very ill advised.
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Nuclear is the only consistent energy source in the EU and requires far less destruction of land than solar.
That's an ironic comment given how the chart shows nuclear power dipping heavily thanks to France shutting down quite a few reactors, not because of market forces, but because it was too hot to run them last month. Also solar doesn't destroy any land. Providing shade is not the same thing as destroying land, and it's one of the reason many of these solar farms are going up on mixed purpose farming land.
While I agree investing a bit in nuclear is a good idea now, you would do well to try to leave out the hyp
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If you look at the actual chart provided by Ember (and linked in OP's post) you'll see the solar values are directly tied to the season.
Yes. That’s how solar works. It’s literally powered by the sun. The relevant question isn’t whether solar dips in winter (it does), but whether we are building the grid architecture—including storage, transmission, demand-shifting, and complementary sources—to use it effectively across the year. You’re stating the obvious as if it’s a disqualifier.
By December the energy production of these vast solar arrays drops well below that of even coal.
This is technically true in winter months, but misleading without context. The trend is not about solar replacing all o
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If you look at a graph of wind output you will see that it mirrors solar, i.e. when solar is low wind is high.
We don't need nuclear, we need more renewables and a few gas plants to cover short periods for a few days a year.
If you're in southern Europe... (Score:2)
...Solar power is viable because the Mediterranean climate is high conducive of solar power installations. I can see a lot of them in Spain, Italy, the Balkans and Greece.
But northern Europe? Not so much. In winter, shorter daylight hours and harsh winter weather makes solar power much less viable.
Re: If you're in southern Europe... (Score:2)
Yes during ~100 days a year solar is currently unviable... In Svalbard.
Germany is so cheap with Solar+Wind+Batteries now, it i rapidly killing coal.
solar (Score:2)
The numbers don't lie, but the shills will (Score:2)
Yay. This is a win for the EU power grid. For the first time ever, solar power was the largest single source of electricity across the EU last month, according to Ember’s latest analysis. Thirteen countries set new solar records, and coal generation fell to an all-time low of just 6.1%—a milestone worth noting -- especially if you own stock in RWE or PGE.
This is not good news for the fossil fuel sector, and they know it. Before the predictable drive-by comments about “lol it’s sum