Canadian wildfires are reducing solar power generation in Europe
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- Iulian-Alin Roșu at the Technical University of Crete led a study finding that smoke from the 2023 Canadian wildfires caused a 3% drop in solar power generation across Europe and North America, costing nearly $2 billion in lost electricity.
- Europe lost almost $1.17 billion in solar generation while North America — mainly the US — lost $711 million, with Germany hit hardest because electricity prices are higher there.
- US solar generation was less affected because most panels are in southern and western states outside the smoke plume, while European solar is more broadly exposed to northern-hemisphere smoke drift.
- The study accounts for a counterintuitive offset: smoke's cooling effect boosts solar panel efficiency by 20% in Europe, partially compensating for reduced sunlight — but not nearly enough to prevent losses.
- Roșu said the lost solar output forced other energy sources to compensate, increasing CO2 emissions, and warned that Canadian wildfire events capable of this will recur "every year from now on."
- Canadian wildfire smoke has reached Europe again in 2025, with Roșu describing current data as "relatively worrying" though the season is still ongoing to compare with 2023.
Why it matters: European consumers and utilities absorbed $1.17 billion in lost solar generation from a single wildfire season, with Germany bearing the brunt. The research shows that as Canadian wildfires become routine, solar-heavy grids face a compounding vulnerability: each smoky summer forces fossil fuel backups to compensate, eroding decarbonization progress on the very days when renewables should be peaking.
