“Solar panels produced a record 10 percent of the EU's electricity (39 TWh [terawatt-hours]) in June-July 2021, compared with 28 TWh in the same period in 2018. Growth is accelerating: the EU has seen solar production will increase by 5.1 TWh between June-July 2020 and 2021, a larger annual change than in 2020 (+3.1 TWh) or 2019 (+2.6 TWh),” reveals the latest group analysis of reflection and research in energy EMBER, in conjunction with the Sustainable Terrestrial System Association - ZERO for the case of Portugal.

According to the analysis carried out by EMBER, in the case of Portugal, in 2018 the production of electricity from solar sources reached 176 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in June and July, while this year it reached 392 GWh. In percentage terms, while in 2018 the fraction of solar production was 2 percent, this year it reached 6 percent, that is three times more. Still, solar panels produced less electricity than Europe's coal-fired power plants, even during the height of summer, and it is necessary to double the annual growth of solar production to meet the EU's 2030 emissions targets.

In June and July of this year, seven EU countries produced more than a tenth of their electricity from solar panels, with the Netherlands (17 percent), Germany (17 percent), Spain (16 percent), Greece (13 percent) and Italy (13 percent) taking the lead. Hungary quadrupled its share in solar energy since June-July 2018, while the Netherlands and Spain doubled and Estonia and Poland went from almost zero solar energy production in 2018 to 10 percent and 5 percent, in June and July 2021. For the first time, Hungary saw, this summer, solar energy surpass that produced from coal, a milestone that had already been reached last year by Greece and Portugal, and, several years ago, by the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Austria and Belgium.