Index – Economy – Huge changes are coming to meters and solar panels

“Since solar and wind energy is rhapsodically available, in order to use it, it is also necessary to store it. Hungary will have the world’s fourth largest capacity in the production of high-tech systems for green energy storage by 2030,” said László György in Veszprém on Monday.

The green energy market is expected to expand eightfold by 2050, and Hungary will not be a follower, but a leader of the turnaround

– indicated the government commissioner. Earlier, Attila Steiner, the state secretary responsible for energy and climate policy, highlighted that the solar panels already produce more than 6,000 megawatts of energy, so when the sun shines, they already cover domestic energy consumption, supplemented by the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. Of course, when the sun is not shining, the situation is different. This is why the government allocated HUF 200 billion for production, storage and the creation of production capacities in the form of various tenders, and geothermal energy and the wider use of biogas are also being investigated.

The politician also announced that the E.ON Hungária Group will install more than 165,000 new smart meters in its service area. The new meters are now capable of being read from a distance, as opposed to traditional consumption measuring devices, so consumers no longer have to fiddle with reading the electricity meter. With smart meters, in addition to electricity consumption, possible feed-in can also be monitored, which is beneficial for solar-powered households.

China is an unavoidable player in the industry

According to the analysts of the Makronom Institute, although the use of photovoltaic technology was discovered by the United States, it is still dominated by China today. Although the USA is still the first in innovation, eight of the ten largest solar panel manufacturing companies are now located in Asian countries, while only two are located on the American continent. Since 2011, Beijing has invested about $50 billion in the industry’s supply chain, ten times as much as Europe, resulting in China alone supplying 80 percent of the world’s solar panels.

The supremacy of the Far Eastern superpower is due to its conscious industrial policy, which has lasted for a quarter of a century, and which is likely to continue in the coming years.

– pointed out Bálint Kecskés, analyst of the Makronóm Institute. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the global annual renewable capacity expansion increased by 50 percent to nearly 510 gigawatts last year, which is the fastest growth rate in the past twenty years. Globally, solar panels accounted for three quarters of the world’s renewable capacities. In addition to the current market conditions and existing regulations, global renewable energy capacities will reach 7,300 gigawatts by 2028, which is less than the three-fold target, but still a significant (2.5 times) increase compared to 2022.

“With the processing of critical minerals required for the production of solar panels being highly concentrated in the Asian country, and the share of the components of the technology exceeding 95 percent in more than one case – in polysilicon, ingot and wafer production – the industry is currently completely dependent on China ” – indicated the analyst.

Europe needs China’s help in the green transition

In 2023, the trend of the previous years continued in the European Union, and the solar energy production capacities increased by about 40 percent, which is essential to achieve the set goals: the EU has committed to more than 320 gigawatts by 2025 and nearly 600 gigawatts by 2030 builds solar production capacity. Compared to the value of 2020 (136 gigawatts), this means an increase of 341.18 percent over a decade.

As a result of the increase in efficiency and the expansion of production capacities, the price of panels has fallen significantly – so much so that more and more manufacturers are finding themselves in a difficult situation due to overproduction and low prices

– indicated Kecskés, noting that the installation costs are rising at the same time, due to increased demands and high labor costs.

So, while there are oversupply problems on the one hand, the supply of services, i.e. installation on the roof and support structures, cannot keep up with the demand. The European Solar Panels Council warned in February that if they do not receive emergency aid, European solar panel manufacturers will soon shut down due to a lack of Chinese investment in the industry. The problem was caused by the dramatic drop in the unit price (below 0.2 cents/watt, calculated in dollars), as a result of which investments may be delayed. “This also underlines the fact that Chinese investors, who are quasi-monopoly on the global market, are essential for the green transition of our continent,” said the analyst.

Hungary wants to be at the forefront

The experts pointed out that 18 percent of the electricity produced in Hungary was produced by solar panels in 2023, which makes us one of the leaders in Europe, and in terms of share, we are in second place after Greece.

About 260,000 houses have solar panels on their roofs, and in terms of single-family houses built after 2010, such equipment is in use in every fourth

– explained Zoltán Mihálovics. According to the analyst, government incentives played a major role in this jump, which has four flagships:

• the Solar Energy Plus Program aimed at the public (75 billion forints),
• the electric vehicle procurement tender for businesses (30 billion),
• the storage tender addressed to industrial users (62 billion),
• and the Green National Champions support program aimed at the technology development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the field of the green economy (an investment worth nearly HUF 60 billion will be realized with a subsidy of about HUF 28 billion).

The growth of the domestic solar energy sector is indicated by the fact that, after more than 1,000 megawatts the year before last, the total solar installed power increased by a record 1,600 megawatts in 2023, which means that the solar energy capacity has doubled in two years. Industrial and household-sized systems shared approximately half of the annual expansion, which exceeded all previous ones. The total installed power of domestic solar solutions already exceeds 5,600 megawatts, but it is also important to mention that the Paks nuclear power plant feeds an additional 2,000 megawatts into the grid, so it can function as a balancing source of electricity. This is also why it is possible what State Secretary Attila Steiner talked about, that under suitable weather conditions, with the addition of the nuclear power plant, the country is able to operate completely without carbon dioxide emissions.

The success of Hungary’s green transition is also well exemplified by the fact that our country met the 2030 targets six years earlier: the total solar energy output exceeded 6,000 megawatts this year

– explained Mihálovics. The total installed capacity of industrial power plants is 3,478, that of household-sized power plants is 2,362, and that of power plants producing for own purposes is 260 megawatts. With this, by the end of the decade, the revised version of the National Energy and Climate Plan already counts on 12,000 megawatts of solar power plant capacity, which is expected to be sufficient for electricity export.

With the production of existing and planned solar farms and the Paks nuclear power plant, Hungary can export electricity instead of the current dependence on imports

said Csaba Lantos in March. The Minister of Energy explained that Hungary still needs to import electricity, 25-26 percent of the electricity used is imported. At the same time, the domestic solar park has expanded strongly in the past few years, according to the latest data, a solar park with a capacity of 6,100 megawatts has already been established, of which about 60 percent are industrial and 40 percent domestic. According to the minister, if the new units in Paks become operational, and if the operating time of the current nuclear power plant is extended, Hungary can become a net exporter.

(Cover photo: Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images Hungary)