Solar Connection - key outcomes

Solar energy is leading and overtaking fossil fuels across Europe. The European Commission has targeted 600 GW of total installed PV capacity by 2030 to offset the loss of Russian imports. This growth represents a revolution in the distribution grids, which must adapt to the increasing solar PV capacity. Congestion issues are likely to emerge across Europe as a result. 

The Solar Connection project was designed to address this challenge through a collaborative approach. Experts from the solar and distribution system operation (DSO) industries across Europe, came together to discuss grid integration optimisation, identify best practices, and develop joint solutions. To that purpose, Eurelectric and SolarPower Europe organised a series of three roundtables: 

1. The first focused on bottlenecks in individual grid connection procedures at the project level. 
2. The second examined network development plan practices and investments at the system level. 
3. Finally, the third roundtable took a cross-cutting perspective, assessing bottlenecks in deploying flexibility resources within the distribution grid.