Central, Eastern Europe gain ground in race to go green

Solar power production across former Eastern bloc countries including Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania has grown roughly 450% over the past six years, according to renewable energy researcher László Török of the University of Debrecen. Hungary alone went from 244 gigawatt-hours of solar power in 2016 to 9,200 GWh today, now supplying nearly a quarter of its energy needs.

The growth is fueled by EU climate policies like 'Fit for 55' and 'REPowerEU,' pandemic recovery funds, and the bloc's 2022 cutoff of Russian energy imports after the invasion of Ukraine. Poland can now meet up to 60% of its energy needs with solar on its sunniest days, and the EU last year produced more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels for the first time.

Much of the hardware comes from China: the EU has imported $94 billion worth of Chinese solar panels over the past decade, including 91 gigawatts worth last year alone. Experts describe the shift as driven primarily by EU money and policy rather than any sudden ideological embrace of green energy in the region.

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