Solar Magazine – The Netherlands strengthens its leading position and has the most solar panels in Europe per capita
The Netherlands managed to take first place in 2021 take over from Germany and has continued to build on its discovery over the past calendar year. Where the knowledge used to be 93 watt-peak per inhabitant, it has now grown by 145 percent to 228 watt-peak per inhabitant.
More than 1,000 watt peak
SolarPower Europe concludes that the Netherlands is the first country in Europe where the independent capacity exceeds 1,000 watt peak – or 1 kilowatt peak – per average inhabitant. In the latest edition of the EU Market Outlook For Solar Power 2022-2026, SolarPower Europe speaks of a new combined capacity of 3.6 gigawatt peak for the year 2021 for the Netherlands. However, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has the installation figure for 2021 in December increased to 3.8 gigawatt peak.
Where in the Netherlands the excellent wealth per inhabitant averages 28 percent, including German growth ‘only’ 13 percent. The new number 3 – Denmark, which has pushed Belgium out of the top 3 – even experienced a growth of 58 percent.
4 gigawatt peak
Germany is not yet Europe’s largest solar energy market with an annual growth in 2022 of 7.9 gigawatt peak. In its latest report, SolarPower Europe assumes that the Netherlands checked 4 gigawatt-peak of solar panels last calendar year. The 27 EU member states could have welcomed 41.4 gigawatt peak of solar panels; a growth of 47 percent due to the 28.1 gigawatt peak from 2021. The European growth is 10 gigawatt peak higher than SolarPower Europe canceled due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the interrupted power crisis.
From top 3
The total available capacity in the European Union (EU) has therefore grown from 167.5 to 208.9 gigawatt peak. The SolarPower Europe researchers expect growth to increase to 53.6 gigawatt peak in 2023. In calendar year 2026, the solar energy market in the EU has grown to 85 gigawatt peak.
Ten summaries of the previous European Market Outlook, the SolarPower Europe researchers have revised the growth forecast for the Netherlands and Belgium upwards, but the growth scenarios for many other EU member states are further ahead than for the low countries. The Netherlands emerged in the list of growth expectations from the top 3 cases and Belgium also dropped 3 places as can be seen in the table below.
Country significant in gigawatt-peak |
Installed at the end of 2022 |
Installed at the end of 2026 |
Newly announced in 2023-2026 |
1. Germany (1.) |
68.5 |
131.0 |
62.6 |
2.Spain (2.) |
26.4 |
77.7 |
51.2 |
3. Poland (5.) |
12.5 |
34.4 |
21.8 |
4. Italy (7.) |
24.7 |
45.5 |
20.9 |
5. Netherlands (3.) |
18.0 |
37.2 |
19.3 |
14.Belgium (11.) |
7.9 |
13.1 |
5.1 |