Solar generation totalled 94.0 TWh, marking a 15% increase from Q3 2023, with Germany, Italy, and Spain contributing the largest shares at 24.8 TWh, 16.9 TWh, and 9.7 TWh, respectively.
Wind power also surged, reaching 104.7 TWh, a 2% increase from Q3 2023, led by Germany, Britain, and Spain.
Negative pricing and renewable output
Increased renewable output, combined with limited demand-side response mechanisms, led to more instances of zero or negative day-ahead prices in several countries, including Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Spain and Portugal also reported well over 700 hours with zero or negative prices, affecting revenue for renewable energy providers.
Jean-Paul Harreman, director at Montel Analytics, said: “The rise in solar and wind generation is a continuation of a long-term trend in Europe. In recent times this region has seen a massive over-supply of power from these sources, which has led to more occurrences of negative prices.
“As renewables displace conventional power during the solar peak, the demand for fossil fuel generation and imports has significantly widened the price gap between the solar peak and evening peak.
“This trend continued into Q3 2024, with large increases in the number of negatively priced hours in Finland (337), Sweden zones 1-3 (290), the Netherlands (217) and Germany (204).
“Meanwhile, Spain and Portugal have seen well over 700 hours so far this year, where power had zero or even negative value in the day-ahead market. This trend is worrying for renewable developers as the hours with the lowest value are generally the hours that see the highest renewable generation.”
Nuclear generation recovery led by France
Nuclear energy accounted for over a quarter of total European output, marking the highest nuclear generation level recorded by Montel Analytics. This recovery was largely driven by French nuclear units returning online after maintenance in 2022. Nuclear generation reached 163.6 TWh in Q3 2024, a notable increase from previous years.
Harreman noted: “France drove the recovery in nuclear generation after seeing output from this source decline over the past two years.
“This was the key reason why nuclear generation across Europe rose to 163.6TWh in the third quarter this year – the highest proportion of total generation on record and an increase of 9.6TWh and 29.2TWh versus Q3 2023 and Q3 2022 respectively.”
Energy mix overview
In Q3 2024, renewables—including biomass, hydro, wind, solar, and waste—accounted for 50.8% of total European power generation. Nuclear made up 25.3%, followed by gas (13.4%), coal/lignite (10.2%), and oil (0.3%).
Image: Unsplash