The expansion of solar power in the European Union (EU) will be an increasingly important element of the bloc’s efforts to meet its renewable energy goals, augmenting hydro and wind, European energy experts have stressed to New Energy World.

Their enthusiasm is backed up by the European Commission (EC), with an official from the EU saying this clean, flexible and fastest-growing energy source is central to the EU’s green energy transition. Indeed, its competitiveness as a source keeps improving, with solar power costs decreasing by 82% between 2010 and 2020.

In 2021, renewable energy sources made up 37.5% of gross electricity consumption in the EU, with wind and hydro power accounting for more than two-thirds and the remaining one-third generated from solar power (15.1%), solid biofuels (7.4%) and other renewable sources (7.9%), according to the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER)’s Secretary General Charles Esser.

But the solar portion is expected to expand: ‘The EU has a substantial solar energy potential, with southern countries like Spain, Italy and Greece having excellent solar resources,’ says Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of the federation of the European electricity industry, Eurelectric. ‘Even countries in northern Europe can benefit from solar energy, especially with improved solar panel efficiency and energy storage solutions.’

This boost is needed, given that, on 30 March, agreement was reached by the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers to reinforce the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) to increase the bloc’s binding renewable target for 2030 from 32% to 42.5% as a proportion of electricity generation.

This clean, flexible and fastest growing energy source is central to the EU’s green energy transition – its competitiveness as a source keeps improving, with solar power costs decreasing by 82% between 2010 and 2020.

Solar power experts meanwhile have welcomed the May 2022 EU Solar Energy Strategy as ‘a landmark moment’, although its current 750 GW goal by 2030 is short of European solar PV sector association SolarPower Europe’s target of more than 900 GW.

Eurelectric’s Ruby says the strategy is a good step in the right direction, but more action is needed to increase the flexibility of the EU power transmission system and to integrate higher solar capacity: ‘Targets are important, implementing targets are even more so,’ he states, adding: ‘There’s a political will to invest in solar, but to harness that solar capacity, we need to heavily focus on boosting flexibility capacities such as storage.’

The CEER’s Esser also says that while EU governments give the most support to solar (around 136/MWh in 2021), followed by bioenergy with €69/MWh, with an average EU subsidy rate of €83/MWh in 2021, such amounts remained under review. He adds that sunnier countries with more natural solar power are keener to invest.

However, EU experts stress how solar power technology can allow for small-scale units that can be supported by citizens and business. ‘Whether that is through state grants or government loans, we’d like to see those who most need it receive support in the upfront costs of decarbonising their home’s energy,’ comments the SolarPower Europe spokesperson.

In addition, Ruby notes that the EC’s flagship May 2022 REPowerEU Plan ‘demands 751 GW of additional renewable capacity to be added to the grid mix, most of it coming from solar and wind; this means tripling the solar capacity in 2030 compared to 2020 levels’.

Exceeding growth expectations   
Despite this ambition, European solar energy is exceeding expectations, according to SolarPower Europe. ‘Thanks to its low cost and ability to be installed quickly and flexibly, the European Commission has named solar as the “kingpin” of the EU’s effort to get off Russian gas,’ it stresses.

Reflecting solar’s role as the fastest growing energy source, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, calls solar ‘the “Queen” of energy systems’, adding: ‘We expect to have around 1 TW of solar PV in Europe by 2030, representing a five-fold growth.’

Ruby notes that the growth rate ‘has surprised us all and reached outstanding costs reduction and efficiency improvements’. During 2022, there was 41.4 GW of new solar PV capacity connected to European grids, a 47% increase compared to 2021. Annual market growth will beat all expectations, exceeding 50 GW of installed capacity in 2023, to 85 GW in 2026, according to SolarPower Europe projections.

While EU experts agree that solar, wind and hydroelectric power are all good renewable energy sources, ‘the choice depends on factors including geographical location, resource availability and specific project requirements,’ according to Ruby, underlining how solar’s advantages include universal availability, low environmental impact, easy scalability and modularity to meet specific energy needs. Solar panels can be installed on rooftops, in residential buildings or in massive utility-scale solar farms. Their installation is also quick, compared to wind or hydro projects.

Moreover, solar is also easier to use in the home and is ‘fairly predictable, which has network advantages’, notes Esser. He recommends altering tariffs to reflect solar supply and demand, notably encouraging people to use appliances like dishwashers in the middle of the day when there is more sun.

Hybrid generation facilities   
Of course, if the sun does not shine, little power is generated, notably at night. Wind and hydropower resources are more consistent in terms of availability, while solar varies significantly by season.

But SolarPower Europe and the CEER emphasise that solar works well with other green energies such as hydro. There is increasing use of hybrid facilities combining solar with wind or even solar with battery storage and wind, according to Esser, reducing [energy] variability, which benefits the network.

‘Alpine dams double as solar projects. Reservoirs created by hydropower dams can be protected from evaporation by floating solar installations,’ adds the SolarPower Europe spokesperson.

Naturally, financing helps. Experts say the best way the EU can harness solar power’s potential is to invest heavily in distribution and transmission grids and storage solutions to complement solar’s variable generation and increase its capacity factor.

‘Energy storage systems must be boosted as they can store excess energy generated during sunny periods to use when the sun does not shine,’ notes Ruby, calling on the EU and member states to urgently expand the grid capacity of the electricity infrastructure to connect solar PVs.

‘As shown in our grid capacity report (released in September 2023), our electricity infrastructure has limited capacity today due to increasing connections requests from solar PVs, heat pumps and electric vehicles,’ Ruby maintains, arguing €400bn is needed in grid investments by 2030.

In addition, copper cables need to be urgently modernised, expanded and digitalised to accommodate the massive amount of renewable capacity expected in future, according to the Eurelectric report.

For Esser, it is not just copper and ‘building physical lines’, there must be more flexible ‘smart’ grids with dynamic prices, encouraging consumers to change their behaviour according to grid demands.

Commission aid   
An EC official emphasised the raft of measures available to boost solar power, however. These include new legal provisions permitting renewable energy and solar projects under the agreement on the renewable energy directive; and support to meet the 42.5% target, he told New Energy World.

Notably, solar energy is judged a ‘strategic net zero technology’ under the EC’s February 2023 Green Deal Industrial Plan and March 2023 proposal for a Net Zero Industry Act (an EU regulation).

In particular, a European Solar Rooftops Initiative, part of the EU solar strategy, will oblige installation of solar energy in different types of buildings over the next few years, according to the official.

In addition, an EU Renewable Energy Skills Partnership, launched March 2023, will ensure workers can develop skills to install solar power, and the European solar PV Industry Alliance, launched in December 2022, will encourage investment in solar PV and help make solar PV products more efficient and sustainable.

Finally, a Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, adopted March 2023, provides member states with grant aid to accelerate the rollout of renewable energy and energy storage and support investment in manufacturing solar panels.

New installation rates   
In any event, solar’s future is undeniably bright – last year was a record in terms of newly installed solar power, according to the EC official. In 2022, Germany was Europe’s biggest solar market with 7.9 GW of newly installed capacity, followed by Spain, the fastest growing market, Poland (4.9 GW) and France (2.7 GW), notes Eurelectric’s Ruby.

This growth is increasingly fuelled by large solar farms compared to smaller solar installations, according to the SolarPower Europe spokesperson: ‘Up until now, the balance of rooftop versus utility has been almost a 50:50 split. In 2022, there was 118 GW of rooftop and 121 GW of utility scale. But the balance is changing with large-scale solar making more sense where solar radiation is higher.’

‘By 2027, when we’ll have around 617 GW total solar in Europe, we see a trend of utility-scale solar becoming slightly more dominant, taking closer to 60% of the market.’ This would be a shift from the organisation’s EU market outlook projection 2022–2026, which said 60% of new solar power on average will come from rooftop solar during these years.