The [Ember] group said [18/]27-nation bloc generated [12.2]% of its electricity from solar power from May to August, up from 9% during the same period last year. Solar energy narrowly topped the share provided from wind [11.7%] or hydropower [11%], while coming in just below that produced from burning coal [16.5%].

Ember said that without the 99.4 terrawatt hours of electricity provided by solar, the EU would have had to buy 20 billion cubic meters of gas, costing about 29 billion euros (nearly $29 billion) during the four-month period.

...In order for solar capacity and generation to match necessary ambition by 2030 --
as well as REPowerEU targets -- this rate of deployment must continue. However, Ember's recent analysis shows that projections for the upcoming years fall short of the goal, with annual capacity additions in 2026 meeting only 46% of the value required under 1.5C pathways. This is largely due to permitting bottlenecks, with several countries exceeding the legally binding limits of project development times—these barriers need to be addressed for solar to keep growing....

The Netherlands and Germany, not known for their sunny climates, had the highest share of electricity from solar, followed by Spain. Poland saw the biggest increase in solar power generation compared with 2018, increasing installed capacity 26-fold, the report said....

...Germany, for its part, suggested that a complete ["]stoppage["] in Russian gas imports would not do more harm to its economy since Moscow has already ["]halted["] deliveries exports through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last week.

"Germany no longer gets Russian gas and we can still store it," said German economy and climate minister Robert Habeck. "This means that the market no longer expects us to collapse if there is no Russian gas."...