In the week of January 29, average prices in most major European electricity markets were similar to the previous week. Solar energy production continued to increase in most markets as the days got longer, while wind energy production was generally lower than the previous week. Demand decreased in almost all markets. CO2 futures continued to decline and gas futures halted the downward trend of recent months.
During the week of January 29, solar energy production continued to increase in the main European electricity markets, thanks to longer days. This trend has persisted since the beginning of the year in the Italian and French markets, with week-on-week increases of 20% and 10%, respectively, in the aforementioned week. On the Iberian Peninsula, solar energy production increased for the second consecutive week, by 16% in Portugal and 6.3% in Spain. However, the German market was the exception, registering a 7.0% decrease in solar energy production after a significant increase in the previous week.
The upward trend in solar energy production was also reflected in the daily values. In Spain, solar photovoltaic energy production reached levels last seen in October, with 104 GWh generated on Sunday, February 4. Italy and Portugal registered 67 GWh and 12 GWh respectively on Saturday, February 3, marking solar energy production levels not seen since October.
According to AleaSoft Energy Forecasting’s solar energy production forecasts for the week of February 5, the trend will reverse, with an increase in solar energy production in Germany and a decrease in Italy and Spain.