Solar Becomes the EU's Largest Power Source for the First Time as June Output Hits a Record 52 TWh
Ember data shows solar supplied 25 percent of EU electricity in June 2026, a record 52 TWh that outranked nuclear, gas, wind, hydro, and coal for only the third month ever.
Overview
Solar power generated a record 52 TWh of electricity across the European Union in June 2026, making up 25 percent of the bloc’s monthly generation and making solar the EU’s largest single source of power for the month, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica, both reporting on analysis from the energy think tank Ember. It was the first month ever that solar alone supplied a quarter of the EU’s electricity.
What We Know
Solar’s June output beat its own previous monthly high of 47 TWh, or 23 percent of generation, set in May 2026, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica. In June, solar outranked every other power source in the bloc: nuclear supplied 21 percent, gas 15 percent, wind 14 percent, hydro 12 percent, and coal just 8 percent, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica. June 2026 was only the third month on record that solar has been the EU’s single largest power source, after June 2025 and May 2026, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica.
The milestone caps a period of rapid growth. Solar generated just 10 percent of EU power (21 TWh) in June 2021, and has grown by more than a fifth every year between 2021 and 2025 — the fastest growth rate of any power source in the bloc, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica, which attribute the growth mainly to a high pace of installations, including 65.1 GW of new solar capacity added in 2025 alone. Record solar output in June coincided with high summer power demand, driven partly by cooling needs during record-breaking heatwaves, and solar helped sustain power supplies as other sources struggled in hot, still conditions, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica.
“Solar’s rise has been truly stratospheric, beating prediction after prediction,” Chris Rosslowe, senior analyst at the Ember think tank that conducted the analysis, told Euronews. “In just a few years solar has gone from a small player to an essential part of Europe’s power system, as governments and citizens look for low-cost, quick-to-install domestic power sources.”
The growth is broad-based: 18 of the EU’s member states have set new monthly records for their share of power from solar so far in 2026, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica. Spain generated over a third of its power from solar in June (34 percent) for the first time, a milestone Euronews links to the country having doubled its wind and solar capacity since 2019, adding more than 40 GW. Germany crossed the one-third threshold in May, for the first time, at 33 percent, then reached 36 percent in June, according to Euronews and CleanTechnica. Poland, despite being one of the EU’s largest coal users, generated nearly a quarter of its electricity from solar in June (24 percent) after adding more than 20 GW of solar capacity between 2020 and 2025, CleanTechnica reported.
Spain’s build-out has also shown up in household bills. Ember’s analysis found Spanish households have each saved €10 a month on electricity since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed in March, Euronews reported, a savings CleanTechnica also confirmed, describing it as avoiding costs tied to the energy crisis following the war between Iran and the United States and Israel — a shock The Machine Herald previously reported drove a rush toward solar, heat pumps, and EVs across Europe. Spain did not use coal-fired power at all in August 2025, and relied on fossil fuels for just 25 percent of its electricity in 2025, giving it per-capita emissions of 0.9 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, below the EU average of 1.3 tonnes, according to Euronews.
“You don’t need Spanish sunshine to achieve what Spain has done — every country in Europe could be making better use of its own wind and solar resources to reduce reliance on expensive gas,” Rosslowe told Euronews.
In Germany, the growth is not only utility-scale: more than a million plug-in balcony solar kits were installed between 2022 and 2025, and small balcony systems now cost around €200 after prices halved in recent years, Euronews reported. Germany is also home to Europe’s largest operational solar park, spanning more than 500 hectares of panels built across a former coal mine, according to Euronews.
What We Don’t Know
Neither outlet’s June report details how much of the record generation came from utility-scale installations versus rooftop and balcony systems at the EU-wide level, nor whether the 25 percent share held steady or fluctuated across individual weeks within the month. It is also not yet clear whether July’s output, still underway, will extend or break the new record, or whether the third-quarter heatwave conditions cited as a demand driver will persist.
Analysis
The milestone underscores a shift Ember has tracked for several years: solar has gone from a marginal contributor to the EU’s single largest monthly power source in a matter of five years, overtaking nuclear, gas, wind, and hydro for the third time. The pattern across Spain, Germany, and Poland — three countries with very different starting points, from Spain’s rapid capacity build-out to Poland’s coal-heavy legacy grid — suggests the growth is not confined to countries with the strongest solar resource, a point Rosslowe made explicitly in linking the trend to policy support and installation costs rather than sunshine alone.