Solar photovoltaic, solar thermal and wind energy production and electricity demand in Europe

Brent oil prices have fallen to a minimum of the last three years after the failed OPEC + talks with which it was intended to cut production to counteract the decline in demand for the coronavirus. Gas prices are also at historic lows and you have to go back to 2009 to find prices as low as the current ones. In the European electricity markets, prices at the beginning of March have recovered compared to those at the end of February.
Solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar power production, wind power production and electricity demand

Last week of Monday, March 2, solar production declined in most European electricity markets, as planned by AleaSoft since the beginning of last week. There was a decrease close to 11% in the generation with this technology in Spain and close to 7% in Italy.

On the contrary, in Germany there was an increase of 16%. For this week, AleaSoft is expected to increase this production in the Italian market and a decrease in solar production in Germany. In Spain, production will remain at a level similar to last week, although slightly higher.

So far this month, until March 8, there were increases in solar production of 23%, 40% and 50% in Germany, Portugal and Spain with respect to the same period of days of the previous year. On the contrary, in France and Italy solar production was below that registered for the same days of March 2019 by 12% and 18% respectively.

The arrival of the Karine storm in the Iberian peninsula boosted wind power production last week, which ended up exceeding that of the previous week by 27%. In contrast, production in Germany and France fell 41% and 36% respectively, while in Italy the variation was much smaller, by 3.4%.

For this week, AleaSoft expects a decrease in wind energy production in Portugal, Spain and Italy compared to last week. On the contrary, wind generation is expected to increase in France, and in Germany it will increase considerably over the course of this week.

In the interannual analysis of wind turbines production, so far this month highlights the increase in production with this technology of 69% in the Iberian Peninsula and 47% in Italy. While in Germany and France the declines are 34% and 17% respectively.

Last week the electricity demand was higher than the one registered during the week of February 24 in most European markets. The increases ranged from 0.2% to 5.3%. The exception was the German market that registered a decrease of 1.3%. For this week, AleaSoft expects a decrease in demand in much of the markets analyzed.