Providing transparent data on grid capacity and connection requests has become “critical” to identifying bottlenecks as grid congestion becomes an increasing impediment to new renewable energy projects.
Overall, Germany (with 16.1GW added in 2024) continues to be the most important market in the European Union for solar PV, followed by Spain (9.3GW) and Italy (6.4GW).
European countries’ expanded plans for solar PV deployments may be held up by a lack of grid infrastructure development, according to solar trade body SolarPower Europe (SPE).
The European Commission has targeted a 90% share of EU electricity consumption by 2040 to come from renewables – mostly solar and wind – and complemented by nuclear energy, according to a leaked draft first obtained by French media Contexte.
As the proliferation of grid-scale renewables accelerates, capacity on national grids is diminishing just as quickly, leading to harder to find and ever-costlier connection agreements. Liam Stoker assesses some of the alternative options grid operators are exploring to extortionate grid upgrades.
