Almost 50,000 new solar panels were installed in Flanders in 2018, providing a power capacity of around 225 megawatts (MW), according to the Energy map of the Flemish Energy Agency. 99% of the newly installed panels ended up on the roofs of family homes, which comes down to 85% of the solar capacity installed in 2018. Measured in number of installations per 1,000 inhabitants, the municipalities of Gavere, Haacht and Wingene did best.
Flemish companies, organisations and local authorities had 353 large solar panel projects built in 2018, good for a capacity of more than 34 MW. In total, that makes for 66% more installations than in 2017 and double the amount of additional power.
"It is still possible to reach our 2020 goals for solar energy," said Flemish minister for Energy Lydia Peeters (Open VLD) to Het Nieuwsblad. "The trend already started earlier for Flemish households, but I am very happy to see that larger projects are now also being added. The companies installing solar panel are not only helping us reach our goals, they also benefit themselves in the long term for investing in renewable energy," she added.
In total, Flanders has 378,939 solar panels installations, which together provide a capacity of 2,823 MW.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
