Hungary, a member country of UE, has experienced a significant growth in the renewable energy sector throughout the recent years. Regarding to this, according to Eurostat data, the share of energy from renewable sources, in the final gross energy consumption in 2016, was 14.19%, which is significantly higher than the 9.3% originally set for this year.
Solar PV, a plan for a growth that will have to continue
In particular, Hungary will set a target for 20% for renewable energy coverage, to be reached by 2030. In the specific case of the electricity sector, the share of renewable energy usage was 4.4% in 2005, which grew up to 7.1% in 2010 and to 7.3% in 2015.
The amount of electricity from renewable sources had been regularly increasing in Hungary until 2010. In that year, the rise of the renewable energies’ share has slowed down after the crisis. Until 2015/2016, biomass and wind farms provided most of the renewable electricity production in Hungary. On the other hand, from 2017/2018, the expansion of electricity production from renewable sources is the result of the explosive growth of the installed capacity of solar panels.
A target of 6645 MW by 2020
Forecasters predict that, by 2020, photovoltaic solar energy sector will reach 6645 MW of installed power. As it can be seen from the graph below, considering 2015 as a starting point (when the MW installed were 168), the value is estimated to grow up to 1842 MW by 2020. In the following years, the sector will continue to grow. At the same time, as a result of existing policies, the installed power for generators that use renewable resources will exceed 4600 MW, of which solar panels will produce over 4000 of that.
The amount of electricity from renewable sources in 2030 should, therefore, exceed 6500 GWh, of which solar PV will supply about 70%. According to forecasts, the share of renewable energy usage in 2030 amounts to 12.8% of gross final electricity consumption (RES-E).
Solar energy, a sector that needs investments
In order to promote the development of solar PV, some investments to develop the self-consumption (especially in families and SMEs) will be made. This support will consist of investment grants through tenders. In the following years, Hungary will introduce more possibilities of financing, in order to further increase solar energy to satisfy the country’s energy needs.
In addition to this, during 2019, Hungary will present:
- A strategy for the innovative development of the energy system.
- A series of proposals that will increase the elasticity of the Hungarian electricity system.
