Solar power and battery storage break records across the US and EU in the first half of 2026

Solar and storage records fell across four grids in the first half of 2026. California’s grid operator recorded its highest-ever solar output and battery discharge in early July, Texas set back-to-back solar records, and EU-wide analysis from the energy think tank Ember found solar supplied a quarter of the bloc’s electricity in June for the first time, a milestone Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE tied to a record renewable share in its own half-year data, published July 2, 2026.

California and Texas post new highs

The California Independent System Operator’s grid supplied 23 gigawatts (GW) of solar power, covering 72% of regional demand, on July 10, 2026, according to CAISO’s daily generation data as reported by CleanTechnica on July 16, 2026 – the third time California had broken its own solar generation record since June 1, 2026. The evening before, on July 9, California’s battery fleet discharged a record 12.99 GW, covering 36% of demand at that peak, per the same CAISO-sourced reporting.

In Texas, the grid operator ERCOT recorded 34.427 GW of solar generation on May 13, 2026, a mark nearly matched and then broken at 35.425 GW on July 9, 2026, CleanTechnica reported. Winss Solutions was not able to independently pull the underlying CAISO and ERCOT source reports for this article; both operators publish daily generation and storage data through their own online dashboards, and the figures above are attributed to CleanTechnica’s reporting of that data rather than to a directly verified operator filing.

EU solar tops a quarter of monthly power for the first time

Solar supplied 25% of European Union electricity in June 2026, generating a record 52 terawatt-hours (TWh), Ember reported – up from the previous record of 47 TWh (23% of EU power) set in May 2026. June marked the third time solar has been the EU’s single largest electricity source, after May 2026 and June 2025, ahead of nuclear (21%), gas (15%), wind (14%), hydro (12%) and coal (8%), according to Ember’s analysis, corroborated by Envirotec Magazine’s July 14, 2026 report on the same data. Solar’s EU generation share has grown by more than 20% a year since 2021, when it stood at 10% (21 TWh) in June of that year, and the bloc added 65.1 GW of solar capacity in 2025, taking total installed capacity above 400 GW. Country-level shares in June 2026 ranged from 36% in Germany, which passed one-third of its power from solar for the first time in May 2026, to 34% in Spain and 24% in Poland. Ember senior energy analyst Chris Rosslowe described the pace of solar’s growth in the bloc’s power mix as unusually fast, according to Envirotec.

Germany’s renewables reach 61.8% of power in H1 2026

Renewable sources supplied 61.8% of Germany’s net public electricity generation in the first half of 2026, up from 61.3% in the first half of 2025, according to a Fraunhofer ISE press release published July 2, 2026, based on data from the institute’s Energy-Charts platform. Offshore wind generation rose to a record 14.6 TWh, from 11.4 TWh a year earlier, while onshore wind rose to 52.8 TWh from 48.7 TWh, lifting wind’s overall share of generation from 28.8% to 30%. Solar (PV) generation rose 10% to 43.2 TWh. Hydropower fell to 7.8 TWh, its lowest since 2015, and biomass generation dipped slightly to 17.9 TWh. Fossil-fuel generation (gas, lignite and hard coal combined) rose 6% to 78.6 TWh. Including consumption and transmission losses, renewables’ share of Germany’s total power load reached a record 58.5%, up from 55% in H1 2025, while net electricity imports fell sharply to 1.3 TWh from 9.6 TWh a year earlier. Battery storage capacity connected to the grid grew to 29.3 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 25.4 GWh. Fraunhofer ISE’s Energy-Charts project manager, Leonhard Gandhi, linked part of the shift in Germany’s generation mix to changes in gas prices, according to the institute’s release. SolarQuarter’s July 8, 2026 report on the same Fraunhofer data matched these figures without discrepancy.

Source: Fraunhofer ISE press release, July 2, 2026; Ember, cited by Envirotec Magazine, July 14, 2026; CleanTechnica, July 16, 2026.

Background

The first-half 2026 records extend a trend documented in IRENA’s Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026, which found that solar photovoltaics accounted for 511 GW of the 692 GW of new renewable capacity added worldwide in 2025 – about three-quarters of the global total – keeping solar the fastest-growing power source for another year. That expanding base of installed capacity is now translating into record output on individual grids, from CAISO and ERCOT in the US to the EU-wide totals tracked by Ember. Rising battery deployment is a parallel thread: California’s record battery discharge and Germany’s growing grid-connected storage capacity both point to storage increasingly shifting solar output to cover demand after sunset, a dynamic also discussed in Winss Solutions’ look at whether renewable energy is really unreliable due to intermittency. Germany’s shrinking net imports and growing storage fleet, alongside California’s and Texas’s back-to-back records this summer, suggest the pattern is continuing into the second half of 2026.

Sources: Fraunhofer ISE; Ember; CleanTechnica; Envirotec Magazine; SolarQuarter

Featured image: photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels (free Pexels license).

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Figen Sekin

I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.