In Europe, the growth of generation from renewable sources, together with other factors, has led to the fact that in 2024 the number of periods with supply of zero or even negative electricity costs has doubled per year. But it’s too early to celebrate success. Energy prices have collapsed due to the withering of industry in the EU and the lack of power lines between countries with green generation.
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Statistics on electricity prices in Europe were collected by Montel Analytics. It notes that in 2024, across Europe, there were 4,838 instances of electricity prices falling to zero or below on a day-ahead basis, a record high, driven by rising renewable generation capacity, sluggish demand and limited grid flexibility. Thus, the total number of cases of prices falling to zero and below almost doubled the 2,442 cases that were registered in 2023.
Finland led the negative prices for 721 hours, mainly due to high generation from wind farms and the inability to share surpluses with Sweden and Estonia, with which it shares some transmission lines, but insufficient capacity. At the same time, there was an oversupply of solar electricity in the Netherlands, wind power in Sweden and, for the first time, an overabundance was recorded in the Iberian Peninsula.
Collectively, renewables accounted for 50.4% of Europe’s total energy mix in 2024, a record high. Meanwhile, fossil fuels have fallen to less than 25% of the continent’s total generation, while nuclear power has grown to 24.7%, helped by the recovery of France’s nuclear power plant fleet.
«The availability of nuclear energy in France gradually recovered during 2023 and early 2024 after a historic low in 2022, said Jean-Paul Harreman, director of Montel Analytics, in a commentary on the publication. Moreover, France exported the largest volume of electricity in 22 years in 2024, for which, it seems, we have to thank the German authorities, who stopped all their nuclear power plants.
The reduction in electricity prices did not lead to a reduction in gas prices. The price of gas generation increased by 5.6% over the year (to 43 euros per 1 MWh). By the beginning of the year, storage facilities were 76% full, which is considered sufficient under average winter conditions.
Despite all the apparent cheapness and abundance of solar generation in Europe, the gap between cheap energy during peak production hours and expensive energy in the evening, when citizens need electricity in the maximum volume, has increased even more. Renewable energy is replacing traditional energy, and in the evening and at night there is no longer cheap electricity.
Industrial electricity demand in Europe remained below pre-Covid levels in 2024, and rooftop solar panels continued to offset household electricity consumption. Overall electricity demand in Europe was reported to have fallen 7.7% year on year to 2,678 TWh, highlighting weakening industry, particularly in Germany.