Solar

The use of solar energy is the fastest growing amongst renewable energy sources. In 2010 less than 1% of renewable energy came from solar whereby in 2019 this amounted to be more than 8,5%.

Solar power is one of the cleanest renewable energy source available. In general photovoltaics (PV) is the most well known although three primary technologies exist to make use of solar energy:

  • photovoltaics (PV) – directly transforming light (from the sun) to electricity
  • solar heating and cooling (SHC) systems – collecting thermal energy to provide hot water, or else air heating or conditioning
  • concentrating solar power (CSP) – using heat (from the sun) to drive utility-scale, electric turbines

based on Wikipedia

Each technology has its important role in the energy mix. With PV the already existing electricity sector can benefit. By 2018 PV has reached 3.9% of the EU’s gross electricity output.

The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive from 2009 promoted renewable electricity primarily, but in order to achieve de-carbonising objectives, the other technologies especially heating and cooling should also be put in focus.

Heating and hot water is responsible for 79% of final energy use of EU households and although cooling has a much smaller share, with climate change and rising temperatures, the demand is getting higher. In Europe only 19% of heating and cooling is generated from renewable energy.

The Danube Region has a high potential in solar power as the sunshine duration is more than 1800 hours per year in most part of the region.

based on wikipedia

based on wikipedia

Since 2005 photovoltaic energy production increased more than 60 times, the SCP energy production increased 200 times and solar heating also more than doubled.

There are of course challenges with renewable energy and thus with solar power also. One of these is energy storage since solar energy depends on sunlight and therefore it cannot work at night as well as in bad weather conditions. There are several solutions already in place to overcome this burden. The price of storage dropped more than 60% since 2014 and by 2030 it is expected to fall another 50%.

Another issue is the structure of electrical grids and load management, but with flexible rules and markets, interconnected transmission networks and other already existing solutions these can be overcome.

According to Eurostat in 2017 3.6% of EU-28 gross electricity generation came from solar power and BloombergNEF predicts that drew on current market trends solar power can cover 20% of the EU electricity demand in 2040.

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