Solar, wind covered Belgium’s entire electricity demand for the first time

Belgium’s high-voltage transmission system operator Elia announced that the country provided enough solar and wind electricity on May 29 to cover the country’s entire demand for the first time.

The record took place between 1:00 pm and 1:30 pm. Together, solar and wind generated 8,303 MW of electricity on Monday, beating Sunday’s record of 7,695 MW, Elia wrote in a post on its LinkedIn channel. Last year’s record stood at 7,112 MW on May 11.

Solar’s share of the record electricity generation was substantially higher than wind’s, at around 5,500 MW according to a graph posted by Elia.

“Moments like this highlight the need for a new market model which incentives flexible consumption,” the system operator said. “Under such a model, consumers with flexible appliances such as heat pumps and electric cars will be able to charge their appliances when there is lots of cheap, green electricity available at the same time as helping to keep the grid in balance.”