Solar power in the European Union
In 2010, the €2.6 billion European solar heating sectors consisted of small and medium-sized businesses, generated 17.3 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy, employed 33,500 workers, and created one new job for every 80 kW of added capacity.
[2] In 2022, four EU member states—Spain, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands—ranked among the top 10 globally for additional solar capacity installed in the preceding year.
The growth in jobs suggests the possibility of exceeding 1 million solar workers by 2025, ahead of previous estimates for 2030.
[6] In 2011 the EU's solar electricity production is evaluated as ca 44.8 TWh in 2011 with 51.4 GW installed capacity, up 98% on 2010.
The national strategies are equivalent to 84 GW solar capacity in 2020 which may underestimate the actual development taking place.
[7] Denmark reached its governmental goal of achieving 200 MW of photovoltaic capacity by 2020 already in 2012, eight years in advance.
[8] Croatia as the newest member of the EU has a less than enthusiastic embrace of solar power due to a number of reasons.
One advantage that CSP has is the ability to add thermal storage and provide power up to 24 hours a day.
[25] There is considerable academic and commercial interest internationally in a new form of CSP, called STEM, for off-grid applications to produce 24-hour industrial scale power for mining sites and remote communities in Italy, other parts of Europe, Australia, Asia, North Africa and Latin America.
STEM uses fluidised silica sand as a thermal storage and heat transfer medium for CSP systems.
Bulgaria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have extremely low targets in their plans.
A more ambitious, but feasible, target is 73 million tons of oil per year (2020) – a lorry row spanning 1,5 times around the globe.
