According to data provided by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), solar power generation hit a record high in many European countries in the first half of 2025.

Germany is in the lead, with a total of 40TWh of electricity delivered to the grid from its photovoltaic systems, an increase of 30% from 30.7TWh in the same period last year.

Other European countries also saw significant increases in photovoltaic power generation in the first half of this year: France's photovoltaic power generation reached 15.1TWh in the first half of the year, compared with 11.3 TWh in the same period last year; Denmark increased from 2.0 TWh in the same period last year to 2.3 TWh; Poland's solar power generation in the first half of the year increased from 8.8 TWh in the first half of 2024 to 10.3 TWh in the first half of 2025.

However, despite the increase in the contribution of solar energy to the net generation of public electricity across Europe, the overall contribution of renewable energy fell from 358.1TWh in the first half of 2024 to 344.4TWh in the first half of 2025, mainly due to the decline in the contribution of wind energy.

In Germany, for example, the contribution of wind power falls from 73.4 TWh in 2024 to 60.3 TWh in 2025, accounting for 31.6% of public net electricity generation.

“This is about six percentage points less than in 2024, simply because there is less wind than last year,” said Professor Bruno Burger, senior scientist at Fraunhofer ISE EnergyGraph. “The increase in solar power can only partially make up for this shortfall.”

Overall, the share of renewable electricity in Germany’s public net electricity generation is 60.9%, down from 65.1% in the first half of 2024.