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Solar Europe's biggest electricity source ....
.... in summer.
From Electrek
> **Solar power reached a new milestone across Europe last month [June 2026], generating a record 52 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity and supplying 25% of all electricity used in the European Union in June 2026, according to new analysis from energy think tankEmber.
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> That’s the first time solar has provided a quarter of the EU’s monthly electricity. It also made solar the bloc’s largest source of electricity for the month, ahead of nuclear (21%), gas (15%), wind (14%), hydro (12%), and coal (8%).**
> **It’s only the third time solar has topped all other power sources in the EU, following June 2025 and May 2026. But this time, it set a new record, beating May’s previous high of 47 TWh and a 23% share of electricity generation.
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> “Solar’s rise has been truly stratospheric, beating prediction after prediction,” said Ember senior analyst Chris Rosslowe. “In just a few years solar has gone from a small player to an essential part of Europe’s power system, as governments and citizens look for low-cost, quick-to-install domestic power sources.”
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> The record came as Europe experienced another month of intense summer heat. Higher temperatures boosted electricity demand for air conditioning and cooling, while solar panels generated large amounts of power during long, sunny days.
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> That strong solar output also helped offset weaker performance from other electricity sources during hot, still weather.
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> The milestone caps several years of rapid solar growth. Just five years ago, in June 2021, solar generated only 21 TWh, supplying around 10% of the EU’s electricity.
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> According to Ember, solar generation has grown by more than 20% every year between 2021 and 2025, making it Europe’s fastest-growing power source. A big reason is the pace of new installations: The EU added 65.1 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity in 2025 alone.
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> That growth is showing up across the continent. So far in 2026, 18 EU countries have set new monthly records for the share of electricity generated by solar.
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> Spain crossed an important threshold in June, with solar supplying 34% of its electricity for the first time. Ember says the country’s support for renewable energy helped shield consumers during the recent energy price spikes that followed the US-Israel war with Iran, saving households about €10 per month on electricity bills.
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> Germany also set a new record, with solar providing 36% of its electricity in June after topping 33% of generation in May.
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> Meanwhile, Poland – still one of the EU’s biggest coal users – generated 24% of its electricity from solar in June. The country has added more than 20 GW of solar capacity since 2020, making it one of Europe’s fastest-growing solar markets.**
Clearly, solar is only a solution to the need for renewable electricity for part of the year. As can be seen in the chart above, in November, December, January and February, solar electricity generation is low.
Fortunately, low solar in winter is offset by high wind-generated electricity. The chart below is from Jan Rosenow's Bright Spots.
The blue is the percentage share of wind in total generation, the yellow is the share of solar. They mostly offset each other, and definitely have a negative seasonal correlation. But sometimes they don't offset each other. The brown bars show days when both wind and solar are low at the same time. This is called _dunkelflaute_ , when it's cold, dark and still. We have as yet no satisfactory way to deal with _dunkelflaute_ except by burning gas in peaking gas plants. True, this will only be for a few days each year, but if we are to reach true-zero (as opposed to net-zero) we would need to find some way around this problem.
My second observation is the large day-to day fluctuations in output. Even though they often offset each other, over the winter months, wind shows large day-to-day movements without being offset by solar. Which means that as the share of renewables in the grid rises, we will need not just 4 hours of storage (the norm for solar, so far) but conceivably as much as 24 hours to average output over two days, even before we tackle _dunkelflaute_.
I remain convinced that the solution is synthetic natural gas (SNG — nice oxymoron there!). This takes hydrogen produced via electrolysis using surplus green electricity, and then, using the Sabatier process, combines this with the CO2 to produce methane (H2+CO2 ---> CH4). The most expensive part of this process would be direct air capture, extracting the very low percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere. However, using the exhaust flues of gas power stations is much easier and much cheaper. There would be a closed loop: burn gas ---> keep CO2 ---> use CO2 to make new methane ---> burn gas to generate electricity. Europe has an extensive gas grid, significant (weeks) gas storage, and many legacy gas power stations. Plus, methane is much easier to store and transport than hydrogen.
