Solar energy in the European Union

Solar potential in Europe

Solar energy in the European Union consists of photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal energy.

In 2010, the €2.6 billion European solar heating sector consisted of small and medium-sized businesses, generated 17.3 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy, employed 33,500 workers, and created one new job for every 80 kW of added capacity.^[1]

During 2011, an additional 21.9 gigawatts (GW) of photovoltaics systems were connected to the grid in the European Union, a steep increase from 13.4 GW in 2010.^[2] Turnover of the European PV market amounted to approximately €36 billion for this period.^[3]

Photovoltaic solar power

PV growth in 'watts per capita' from 1992 to 2014

<0.1, n/a   0.1-1   1-10

10-50   50-100   100-150

150-200   200-300   300-450

In 2012, photovoltaic systems with a total capacity of 17.2 gigawatt (GW) were connected to the grid in Europe, less than in 2011, when 22.4 GW had been installed. In terms of total installed capacity, according to EPIA's 2012-report, Europe still lead the way with more than 70 GW, or 69% of worldwide capacity, producing 85 TWh of electricity annually. This energy volume is sufficient to power the supply needs of over 20 million households.^[2]

In 2011, solar photovoltaic continued its growth trend and Italy was the top market for the year, with 9.3 GW connected, followed by Germany (7.5 GW). These two markets were followed by France (1.7 GW) and the United Kingdom (784 MW). In terms of cumulative capacity, Germany with more than 24 GW, is the leading country in Europe,^[2] followed by Italy, with more than 12 GW. PV is now a significant part of Europe's electricity mix, producing 2% of the demand in the EU and roughly 4% of peak demand.^[2]

PV roof-top system in Berlin, Germany.

In 2011 the EU’s solar electricity production is evaluated as ca 44.8 TWh in 2011 with 51.4 GW installed capacity, up 98% on 2010. In 2011 in the EU new installations were 21.5 GW. The solar power share in 2011 was around 3.6% in Italy, 3.1% in Germany and 2.6% in Spain. EuroObserver expects the total installation to reach at least 120 GW in 2020. The national strategies are equivalent to 84 GW solar capacity in 2020 which may underestimate the actual development taking place. For example, according to AGEE-Stat (the Ministry of Environment’s Working Group on Renewable Energy Statistics), Germany connected solar capacity 7.5 GWp in 2011, twice the 3.5 GWp target. EU accounted for 74% of all newly connected capacity in 2011. According to Photon International magazine the worldwide solar cell production capacity was 12.5 GW in 2009 and 37 GW in 2011. In 2012, production capacities are set to rise to 69 GW, same as the total installed capacity worldwide at the end of 2011.^[4]

Denmark reached its governmental goal of achieving 200 MW of photovoltaic capacity by 2020 already in 2012, eight years in advance. Danish energy sector players estimate that this development will result in 1000 MW by 2020.^[5] Croatian as the newest member of the EU has a less than enthusiastic embrace of solar power due to a number of reasons. However, in past few years, Croatian solar energy has seen a dramatic increase in the overall output. From 32.4 MWh in 2012, to an additional 46,2 MWh in 2013 with another 108 MWh^[6] awaiting to be connected to the national grid and additional power plants under construction with total energy output exceeding 200 MWh. Croatian national renewable energy strategy is to increase participating share of renewable in overall energy mix from current 15.8% (end of 2012) to around 25% by 2020 with solar generating at least 500 MWh.

PV in the European Union (MWpeak)[7][8][9][10][10][11][12][13]
#	Country	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
1	Germany	1,910	3,063	3,846	6,019	9,959	17,370	24,875	32,698	36,402	38,301
2	Italy	46	58	120	458	1,157	3,478	12,764	16,361	18,065	18,450
3	France	26	33	47	104	335	1,054	2,831	4,027	4,625	5,600
4	United Kingdom	11	14	19	23	30	75	1,014	1,657	2,782	5,230
5	Spain	58	118	733	3,421	3,438	3,808	4,214	4,516	4,766	4,787
6	Belgium	2	4	22	71	574	787	1,812	2,649	3,040	3,105
7	Greece	5	7	9	19	55	205	631	1,543	2,585	2,603
8	Czech	0	1	4	55	463	1,953	1,959	2,022	2,064	2,061
9	Romania	0	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.6	2	2.9	49	1,022	1,292.6
10	Netherlands	51	51	53	57	68	97	118	321	739	1,100
11	Bulgaria	0	0	0.8	1	6	17	132	933	1,019	1,020
12	Austria	24	29	27	32	53	103	173	421	631	771
13	Denmark	3	3	3	3	5	7	16	391	572	602
14	Slovakia	0	0	0	<0.1	0.2	144	488	517	588	590
15	Portugal	3	4	18	68	102	131	143	228	303	419
16	Slovenia	0.2	0.4	1	2	9	36	90	217	248	256
17	Luxembourg	24	24	24	25	26	27	30	76	95	110
18	Sweden	4	5	6	8	9	10	18	23	43	79
19	Lithuania	0	0	0	<0.1	<0.1	0.1	0.1	6.1	68	68
20	Cyprus	0.5	1	1	2	3	6	10	17	35	65
21	Malta	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	2	2	11	18	28	54
22	Hungary	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.5	0.7	2	4.1	3.7	35	38
23	Croatia	0.5	1.2	3.2	5.6	12	16	16	20	20	34
24	Poland	0.3	0.4	0.6	1	1	2	1.8	3.4	4.2	24
25	Finland	4	4	5	6	8	10	11	11	11	11
26	Latvia	0	0	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5
27	Ireland	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	1	1.1
28	Estonia	0	0	0	<0.1	<0.1	<0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
EU (GWp)		2.17	3.42	4.94	10.38	15.86	29.33	51.36	68.64	79.79	86.67

PV in watts per capita [11][12][13]
#	Country	2011	2012	2013	2014
1	Germany	304.3	399.5	447.2	474.1
2	Italy	210.5	269.0	295.1	303.5
3	Belgium	165.5	240.0	267.3	277.2
4	Greece	55.8	136.7	233.7	236.8
5	Luxembourg	59.9	89.9	186.2	200.1
6	Czech	186.0	192.5	196.1	196.1
7	Bulgaria	17.7	127.4	139.9	140.8
8	Malta	27.4	45.0	58.7	127.5
9	Slovenia	44.1	105.7	123.8	124.2
10	Slovakia	89.8	95.7	99.3	109.0
11	Denmark	3.0	70.2	94.8	106.9
12	Spain	91.3	97.8	100.7	102.9
13	Austria	20.7	49.9	81.7	90.6
14	France	43.5	61.6	71.6	87.6
15	United Kingdom	16.2	26.3	42.9	81.3
16	Cyprus	12.5	19.9	40.2	75.5
17	Netherlands	7.1	19.1	39.6	65.4
18	Romania	0.1	0.3	51.1	64.8
19	Portugal	13.5	21.7	26.8	40.2
20	Lithuania	0.0	2.0	22.9	23.2
21	Sweden	2.0	2.5	4.5	8.2
22	Croatia	0.1	0.1	5.1	8.1
23	Hungary	0.4	0.4	1.6	3.9
24	Finland	2.1	2.1	2.1	1.9
25	Latvia	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8
26	Poland	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.6
27	Ireland	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
28	Estonia	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
–	EU average	102.2	136.3	155.8	171.5

Concentrated solar power

Solar power, the production of electricity from solar energy, is performed either directly, through photovoltaics, or indirectly, using concentrated solar power (CSP). One advantage that CSP has is the ability to add thermal storage and provide power up to 24 hours a day.^[14] Gemasolar, in Spain, was the first to provide 24 hour power.^[15] There is considerable academic and commercial interest internationally in a new form of CSP, called STEM, for off-grid applications to produce 24 hour industrial scale power for mining sites and remote communities in Italy, other parts of Europe, Australia, Asia, North Africa and Latin America. STEM uses fluidized silica sand as a thermal storage and heat transfer medium for CSP systems. It has been developed by Salerno-based Magaldi Industries. The first commercial application of STEM will take place in Sicily from 2015.^[16]

CSP in Europe (MWpeak)[17][18]
#	Country	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
1	Spain	10.00	60.00	281.40	531.40	1,151.40	1,953.90	2,303.90
2	Italy	0	0	0	5.00	5.00	5.00	5.35
3	Germany	0	0	0	1.50	1.50	1.50	1.50
4	France	0	0	0	0.50	0.75	0.75	0.75
EU		10	60	281	738	1,159	1,961	2,311

Solar thermal

Over the next 10 years the European solar thermal will grow on average at a rate of 15% per annum. According to the National Renewable Energy Action Plans the total solar thermal capacity in the EU will be 102 GW in 2020 (while 14 GW in 2006).^[1]

In June 2009, the European Parliament and Council adopted the Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from Renewable Energy Sources (RES). For the first time, heating and cooling accounting for half of the final energy demand will be covered by a European directive promoting renewable energies. The overall renewable target is legally binding but renewable mix is free. According to the delivered national plans the highest of solar heating markets during 2010-2020 will be in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Poland in respect to the national target in 2020 and capacity increase. Top countries per capita will be Cyprus, Greece, Austria, Italy and Belgium.^[1]

In some European countries the solar thermal market is still in its infancy. Bulgaria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, and United Kingdom have extremely low targets in their plans. Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Romania have not included solar thermal in their national plans at all.^[1]

Solar heating is the usage of solar energy to provide space or water heating. Worldwide the use was 88 GW_thermal in 2005. Growth potential is enormous. The EU have been second after China in the installations. If all EU countries had used solar thermal as enthusiastically as the Austrians, the EU’s installed capacity would have been 91 GWth (130 million m²), far beyond the target of 100 million m² by 2010, set by the White Paper in 1997. In 2005 solar heating in the EU was equivalent to more than 686,000 tons of oil. ESTIF’s minimum target is to produce solar heating equivalent to 5,600,000 tons of oil (2020). A more ambitious, but feasible, target is 73 million tons of oil per year (2020) – a lorry row spanning 1,5 times around the globe.^[19]

Solar heating in the European Union (MWthermal)
#	Country	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
1	Germany	7,766	9,036	9,831	10,496	11,416	12,055
2	Austria	2,268	3,031	3,227	2,792	3,448	3,538
3	Greece	2,708	2,853	2,855	2,861	2,885	2,915
4	Italy	1,124	1,410	1,753	2,152	2,380	2,590
5	Spain	988	1,306	1,543	1,659	2,075	2,238
6	France	1,137	1,287	1,470	1,277	1,691	1,802
7	Poland	254	357	459	637	848	1,040
8	Portugal	223	395	526	547	677	717
9	Czech Republic	116	148	216	265	625	681
10	Netherlands	254	285	313	332	605	616
11	Denmark	293	339	379	409	499	550
12	Cyprus	485	490	491	499	486	476
13	United Kingdom	270	333	374	460	455	475
14	Sweden	202	217	227	236	337	342
15	Belgium	188	204	230	226	334	374
16	Ireland	52	85	106	111	177	196
17	Slovenia	96	111	116	123	142	148
18	Hungary	18	59	105	120	125	137
19	Romania	66	80	73	74	93	110
20	Slovakia	67	73	84	100	108	113
21	Croatia					84	98
22	Bulgaria	22	56	74	81	58	59
23	Malta	25	29	32	36	34	35
24	Finland	18	20	23	23	30	33
25	Luxembourg	16	19	22	25	23	27
26	Latvia	1	1	1	3	10	12
27	Lithuania	1	2	2	3	6	8
28	Estonia	1	2	2	3	4	6
EU (in GW)		19.08	21.60	23.49	25.55	29.66	31.39
Notes: The relation between collector area and rated power: 1m2 = 0.7 kWthermal Data source for 2013: Divergent figures from different reports. Total of 31.39 GWth corresponds to figures from EurObserv'ER report,[18] while report from the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) accounts for 30.2 GWth and includes capacity from non-EU member Switzerland.[20] Data sources of previous years: 2012 not sourced – 2011[21] – 2010[22][23] – 2009[24] – 2008[25] For historical data from 2004–2010 see collapsed table below

Solar heating in watts per capita[17][18]
#	Country	2011	2013
1	Cyprus	609	551
2	Austria	397	419
3	Greece	253	263
4	Germany	130	150
5	Malta	80	83
6	Denmark	78	108
7	Slovenia	65	72
8	Portugal	58	68
9	Czech Republic	53	65
10	Spain	41	48
11	Luxembourg	37	51
12	Sweden	35	36
12	Netherlands	35	37
14	Italy	34	43
15	Ireland	27	43
15	Belgium	27	34
17	France	25	27
18	Slovakia	19	21
19	Poland	17	27
20	Bulgaria	11	8
21	Hungary	9	14
22	United Kingdom	7	7
23	Finland	5	6
24	Romania	4	6
24	Latvia	4	6
26	Estonia	1	4
27	Lithuania	1	3
28	Croatia	n.a.	23
–	EU average	55	62

Organizations

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) represents members active along the whole solar PV value chain. EPIA’s mission is to give its global membership a distinct and effective voice in the European market, especially in the EU.^[31]

See also

References

External links