EU acquiring Solar Energy, amid formidable heat

Amid the heatwave and wildfire crisis in Southern Europe, the Sun’s power generation has played a leading role as an important source to avert the electricity crisis. Temperatures have broken records in the area, tourists were rescued from countries like Greece and Italy.
Spain also has observed high temperatures.

The General Secretary of Eurelectric said it acts as an important tool in times when air conditioning has become a necessity.

There were videos on the internet where fires could be seen approaching Highways and Airports in various countries. Spain and Greece have significantly invested in this to bypass high energy prices due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis and improve their alternatives for the worst.

Spain has installed around 4.5 GW of capacity, and the country’s contribution stands at 24 per cent which went up from last year’s 16 per cent. In Sicily, the solar production in July 2024 was double that of July 2022. There were reports of the Electrical Grid being damaged in parts of Spain. Locals in Eastern Sicily have faced water supply and power cuts.

Greece is also trying to improve its capacity to 14.1 GW by 2030 currently which stands at 4.8 GW in 2022 which accounted for around 12.6 percent. Power Grid operator in Athens IPTO, reported that wildfire had damaged a significant section of the electricity grid.

Solar is not fully occupied till now!

According to various reports, solar share in energy production is still low when compared to conventional gas and coal, and nuclear and wind. Europe this time has not faced big problems because the power demand was relatively low.

Countries and people are very concerned about this for the past year. Scientists believe that Europe is not fully ready with its energy infrastructure, it has till now not faced the worst. Last year’s heat and drought have hampered hydro generation ability, transportation, especially by river means and nuclear shutdown by the European giant.

The European Commission and UNDP together have launched a funded study in order for a solar plant in Cyprus. Interestingly countries like India are solarising their railway’s systems, and Europeans are too following the same path. Central Railways of India, one of the zones is developing 1 Megawatt of energy.

French Belgian high-speed firm Thalys is potentially running trains through France, Belgium and Germany 100 per cent on Green Energy from 2020. Belgium is trying to adopt rooftop solar on the stations.

Although the solar radiation across Europe was highest in the span of 40 years.

Steps To seek

Well, the idea of it may be new for many countries but its steps were developed even in 1955 when the first module was installed in the US to supply power to amplifiers. Various countries have tried to innovate this type, Shepherds do use portable solar modules while travelling, they mount it on the cattle and this can act as a better option in an emergency. The Catamaran is the largest solar yacht/boat in the world.

Dries Acke, Director of SolarPower Europe told one of the media firms that to grow in the renewable sector the main thing that should be focused on is Awareness. Germany, Belgium, France and other parts of the SouthEast have seen a large increase. The Alps have started to produce solar power.

There is around $8 billion worth of solar panels being stationed in warehouses of the EU, Europe is succumbing to buying Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from the USA, China has gained significantly in European Giants and Europe is stockpiling Chinese panels, around 90 per cent of panels were from China only.