After years of rapid growth with double-digit increases from previous years, Europe is facing a 92% slowdown in solar growth compared with the growth between 2021 and 2023. Last year was marked by a record 62.8GW of solar capacity additions, while this year's growth from 2023 only amounts to 4.4% – the lowest market growth since 2017.

The slowdown was not surprising for SolarPower Europe. “Following the solar boom during the gas crisis, the urgency of going solar has waned for citizens as their bills normalise,” the EU Market Outlook for Solar Power report said. “Developers face challenges for different reasons. The energy system has not kept up with the solar growth curve, and building bankable utility-scale solar becomes more difficult as grid and flexibility bottlenecks tighten.”

SPE's data showed the residential rooftop market has seen a nearly 5GW decrease from 2023 with 12.8GW of capacity additions in 2024.

This decrease is partially down to the removal of incentives for rooftop solar (for instance, the Netherlands will remove its net metering scheme for residential solar by 2027) which saw decreases in residential solar in Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, and Hungary.

The slower growth of solar PV in 2024, along with residential solar stumbling, has affected the biggest European markets too.

Half of the top 10 biggest solar markets in 2024 have seen a drop in capacity additions from the previous year. Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary have seen their solar PV market contract since the end of the energy price crisis and policymakers failing to offer regulatory stability to maintain investment appetite in solar.

The Netherlands has seen the steepest drop, with an annual decrease of 1.8GW from 2023, whereas the growth in the other five markets has been “modest”, according to the report. France saw the biggest increase, with 1.5GW added in 2024.

Germany (with 16.1GW added in 2024) continues to be the largest market in the European Union for solar PV, followed by Spain (9.3GW) and Italy (6.4GW).

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO at SolarPower Europe, said, “European policymakers and system operators can consider this year's report a yellow card. Slowing solar deployment means slowing the continent's goals on energy security, competitiveness and climate. Europe needs to be installing around 70 GW annually to hit its 2030 targets – we need to consider corrective action now, before it's too late.”

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