European electricity market prices increased in the second week of October. Some hourly prices were above 200 euros/MWh, which was also the case on October 16. The rise was supported by higher gas and CO2 prices – they registered their highest levels since August. Increased demand and lower solar energy production also drove prices up, while wind energy helped prices to fall on some days.
In the second week of October, solar energy production decreased compared to the previous week in the main European electricity markets. The largest drop, 23%, was registered in Portugal. In the other markets, the drop in solar energy production ranged from 19% in Germany to 8% in Italy.
Despite the weekly drop in solar energy production, when comparing solar photovoltaic energy production in the first half of October with the same period in previous years, since 2019, the record has been broken in all analyzed markets.
During the first half of October 2023, the highest solar energy production, 2,04 TWh, was registered in the German market, an increase of 5.4% compared to the same period in 2022 and 62% compared to 2019. In Mainland Spain, solar energy production for the first fifteen days of October 2023 was 1,61 TWh, an increase of 37% and 286% compared to the same period in 2022 and 2019, respectively. The lowest production- 160 GWh – was registered in Portugal, but still represented an increase of 33% compared to 2022 and 228% compared to 2019.
For the second week of October, solar energy production is expected to decrease in the analyzed markets.
Wind energy production increased compared to the previous week in most of the European markets. The largest increase, of 51%, was registered in France, where 261 GWh was generated by wind energy on October 13. That is the highest value registered since the beginning of August. In the other markets, the increase ranged from 8.6% in Germany to 43% in Italy. The exceptions were Spain and Portugal, where overall wind energy production fell by 12% compared to the previous week.
For the third week of October, wind energy production is expected to increase in all analyzed markets, except for Germany.
