Budapest is planning to tap its rooftop solar potential with ten million square metres of panels and accompanying storage, according to Mayor Gergely Karácsony, Balkan Green Energy News has reported. He put the technical potential of the city's rooftops at around 5,000 MW, roughly two and a half times the installed capacity of the Paks nuclear power plant. Annual generation would nonetheless remain lower, at an estimated 5.5 to 6 TWh, compared with the 15 to 16 TWh produced each year at Paks.
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The announcement follows the Hungarian government's adoption last week of a comprehensive energy plan, with a first-phase investment of HUF 868 billion (€2.39 billion) confirmed by Prime Minister Péter Magyar. The programme covers grid modernisation, expanded energy storage capacity, geothermal and wind development, and faster grid connections for household solar systems. Karácsony said the national plan aligns with Budapest's own target of ten million square metres of rooftop solar and accompanying storage. In 2021, the city launched its Powered by the Sun programme in 2021, which included the development of a solar map, but the previous government under Viktor Orbán subsequently banned new solar systems from feeding electricity into the grid, effectively halting installations.
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Full implementation of Powered by the Sun would cut carbon dioxide emissions by almost 500,000 tonnes a year, according to Karácsony, and the resulting rooftop capacity could generate roughly as much electricity as Budapest's residents consume annually. "The impacts of climate change will be felt first and foremost in cities, but no city can tackle this challenge alone," Karácsony wrote, calling for closer cooperation between national government and city authorities. Karácsony also sketched out a division of labour in which the state sets the rules and financing, the city carries them out, the private sector brings investment and technology, and the citizens have an active role. (hcn)
