In the first half of 2026, German solar farms were switched off for a total of 1,463 gigawatt-hours. That’s enough energy to power more than 136,000 homes for a year, and German solar farms have simply left that on the table. The reason for this decision is that Europe’s solar panels are having an unexpected effect on energy prices. So much electricity is being produced that energy prices are going negative; producers have to pay other entities to take the energy off their hands unless they curtail their production. But there’s even more to the story than that.
Elsewhere in Europe, solar farms are staying active even when energy prices go negative. In fact, despite an increased frequency of negative prices in countries like Spain, commercial curtailment has actually decreased across the continent. This is because many governments offer subsidies or support payments to solar farms for staying operational. This makes it profitable for them to continue producing surplus energy, even if they need to pay someone else to take away the extra power.
However, Germany’s new Solar Peak Act includes a provision that suspends subsidies for new photovoltaic systems during intervals when prices turn negative. Policies like this are exactly why Europe’s solar and wind farms keep getting turned off. In particular, the Solar Peak Act affects any solar farm commissioned after February 25, 2025, such as the massive 2,000 MW Verbund Visiolar solar park that will begin operations near Berlin by 2028.
Every minute that a solar farm is curtailed is a minute of squandering the sunlight. Germany is part of the European Union, which generated 30% of its electricity from wind and solar in 2025, but that number may not reach the coveted 100% if renewable energy plants are being curtailed. The good news is that curtailment was on the decline throughout most of Europe in early 2026, but something needs to be done in places like Germany, where solar farms are still being shut off so frequently.
One tiny European country is setting a positive example. A new solar farm project will make Vatican City energy-independent. What’s more, an international arrangement ensures that excess energy produced by the Vatican’s solar farm will be passed along to Italy. This type of collaboration may have its caveats, but it’s preferable to squandering the surplus entirely.
Experts agree that the ideal answer, though, is better battery storage. There is currently no perfect way to store all of the excess energy being generated by the world’s solar farms. If there were, there would be no reason to switch off the panels or dip prices into the negative. It would also solve the fact that Europe’s solar farms are facing an unexpected threat from the Sahara. When bad weather blots out the sun, it hinders renewable energy production. This problem and more would be trivial if we had a robust infrastructure of solar-charged batteries to fall back on.

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