2025 has been a transformative year for Europe’s solar sector, particularly in the small-scale rooftop and distributed PV markets across the EU-27. Despite wider predictions of stagnation, small-scale solar installations defied expectations, driving a dynamic shift in investment and uptake across households and businesses. Data from the International Energy Agency PVPS Snapshot highlights 71.4 GW installed across Europe in 2024, with small-scale projects comprising a significant share—fuelled by policy support and attractive economics.

Global solar installations saw a record-shattering growth in the first half of 2025, increasing an astounding 64% year-on-year and reaching 380 GW of new capacity deployed worldwide. This surge marks solar PV as the fastest-growing energy generation technology on the planet, eclipsing all other sources in pace and impact. For context, the comparable period in 2024 saw 232 GW installed, meaning the solar sector added more capacity in just six months than any previous full year in the sector’s history.

Solar shading refers to any obstruction—be it trees, chimneys, neighbouring buildings, or even bird droppings or dirt—that blocks direct sunlight from reaching rooftop solar panels. This matters because the performance of solar PV arrays relies on uninterrupted solar irradiance; even light shade can significantly reduce the power output. In some scenarios, experts estimate system losses up to 40%, especially when panels are wired together in series and one panel in a string is shaded.

The European consortium “SolarMoves,” comprising the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), and solar car innovators Lightyear, IM Efficiency, and Sono Motors, spent nine months measuring the real-world energy potential of solar vehicles on European roads. More than 1 million kilometres of data, collected from 18 vehicles, confirms solar panels on vehicles are a viable and promising source of clean mobility, with substantial benefits but also notable limitations tied to environmental and user factors.

The UK’s electricity sector has reached a historic milestone as the carbon intensity of its power generation fell below 100 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour (gCO₂/kWh) between April and June 2025. This marks a monumental step forward in the United Kingdom’s decarbonisation journey. The achievement is attributed to a combination of extensive renewable energy deployment, the phasing out of coal, and smarter grid management, further positioning the UK as a leader in clean energy.

In a landmark development for the UK's climate ambitions and energy landscape, the latest data indicates that the UK’s power sector now produces lower greenhouse gas emissions than the aviation sector. This milestone highlights the dramatic reduction in emissions from electricity generation, driven by the rise of renewables and low-carbon technologies, contrasted with the persistent and growing challenge of decarbonising aviation. This article explores this significant shift, its implications, and what it means for the UK’s path to net zero.

Innovative advances in solar PV and battery integration now allow certain next-generation systems to thrive in high temperatures—overcoming what was once a major Achilles’ heel for traditional panels. Recent research from Loughborough University shows that integrated “solar-plus-storage” devices, like photoelectrochemical (PEC) flow cells, can harness heat to accelerate chemical reactions, improving energy storage efficiency at temperatures up to 45°C.

In the first six months of 2025, UK solar power generation soared to 9.91TWh, a 32% increase compared to the same period in 2024 according to Ember’s latest analysis. This historic figure was driven by increased deployment, better technology, and the UK’s sunniest spring on record since 1910. Total operational solar PV capacity now exceeds 22GW, putting the UK among the leading European nations for solar capacity The record 9.91TWh generation displaced millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and saved around £600 million in imported gas costs .

The first half of 2025 marked a historic milestone in the global energy transition, with investment in new renewable energy projects soaring to an all-time high of $386 billion—a 10% increase year-on-year, according to the latest Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BloombergNEF) report. This unprecedented level of funding underscores growing investor confidence and highlights the accelerating shift toward a cleaner, more sustainable global energy system.