In the first week of 2024, increased demand drove prices higher in most European electricity markets. However, in Spain, Portugal and Italy, prices decreased due to a significant increase in wind energy production. On January 2, France reached a daily wind energy production record of 402 GWh. On that day, FrontMonth futures of TTF gas in ICE marked the lowest settlement price since the first half of August 2023, reaching €30.57/MWh.
In the week of January 1, solar energy production decreased in most major European electricity markets compared to the previous week. The German market registered the largest drop, 33%, while the Italian market registered the smallest drop, 7.7%. The Iberian Peninsula was the exception, as solar energy production increased by 4.0%, mainly due to a 22% increase in the Portuguese market. On January 7, the Spanish market generated 80 GWh with solar photovoltaic energy, marking the highest production using this technology since the end of November last year.
According to AleaSoft Energy Forecasting’s solar energy production forecasts, it will increase in Germany, Italy and Spain in the week of January 8.
As for wind energy production, in the first week of 2024, it registered increases in most major European electricity markets compared to the previous week. Italy led the increases, up 246%. The Spanish market also registered a significant increase, 157%. The French market had the smallest increase, 1.1%. Despite this, on January 2, France generated 402 GWh with wind energy, the highest daily value in the historical series. Although the German market was the leader in wind energy production among the analyzed markets during the week, it registered a 23% decrease compared to the production of the last week of 2023.
According to AleaSoft Energy Forecasting’s wind energy production forecasts, production with this technology will drop in all analyzed markets in the week of January 8.
