The report, “Turning to the Sun: Solar Rise in Central Europe”, details how cumulative solar generation in the region exploded nearly sixfold from 5 TWh to 29 TWh by 2024, far outpacing the EU’s 2.5-fold increase from 125 TWh to 308 TWh.
Central European countries’ successes are diverse and striking. Hungary has emerged as a global leader, with solar contributing nearly 25% of its electricity in 2024 – up from just 4% in 2019 – and peaking at a record 42% in June 2025.
Poland’s solar output skyrocketed more than twentyfold from 0.7 TWh to 15 TWh, with over 1.5 million prosumers by mid-2025 and renewables surpassing coal generation for the first time in June.
Czechia, after a decade of stagnation, rebounded with over 1 GW of new PV capacity in 2023 – its first GW-scale year since 2010 – nearly doubling output to 4 TWh in 2024 and reaching 14.7% of electricity in June 2025.
Even Slovakia, long trailing due to policy barriers like an eight-year grid moratorium, accelerated recently, adding 274 MW in 2024 after minimal growth earlier.
This rapid ascent, despite modest solar potential and economic challenges, shows how the European Green Deal can gain momentum, even in challenging contexts. Once heavily reliant on coal, these nations are reshaping Europe’s energy landscape, proving that even regions with below-average GDP and political hurdles can lead the clean transition.
Coal’s decline underscores the shift: Hungary halved its coal share from 12% to 6% between 2019 and 2024, Poland marked a historic renewables-over-coal milestone, Czechia advanced its coal phase-out to 2033 with a 7 percentage point drop, and in 2024, Slovakia closed its last dedicated coal-fired power plant, reducing coal use in electricity to a minimum and limiting it to co-generation.
Central Europe has become batteries manufacturing powerhouse, with Hungary and Poland ranking among the world’s top exporters. Hungary hosts nearly 40% of the EU’s cell assembly capacity as of January 2025, while Poland leads with a 7.3 GW grid-scale battery pipeline – one of the largest in the EU – including 0.8 GW permitted or under construction. However, deployed large-scale batteries total just 0.1 GW, less than 2% of the EU’s total.
Central Europe demonstrates that coal-dependent nations can change course and achieve notable renewable gains.With the right policies, the region could turn this momentum into a competitive edge and even surpass its Western neighbors in clean energy deployment.
Ember is an independent energy think tank that uses data and policy to accelerate the clean energy transition. It creates targeted data insights to advance policies that urgently shift the world to a clean, electrified energy future.
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