Record start for solar panels: Belgians enjoy the most productive start of the year in 20 years
Good news for solar panel owners: the first quarter of 2025 was the best ever in terms of solar irradiation in the past twenty years. "Our panels produced no less than 24% more than in the same period last year when the sun was largely absent," says Maarten Michielssens, CEO of EnergyVision. "Just last month, a single panel even produced a third more energy."
With only 1,367 hours of sunshine, 2024 was the darkest year in a quarter of a century. Even when the sun did break through the clouds, it was anything but powerful. Over the entire year, the Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI) recorded just 917.2 kWh/m² of global solar irradiation—the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface. That was 120 kWh below the average, equivalent to the solar irradiation of a spring month like April.
Fortunately, dark periods don’t last forever. The past three months have been much sunnier than average. In March alone, the RMI recorded 103.7 kWh/m² of solar irradiation, the highest figure since measurements began in 1991. In total, the first quarter saw 166.4 kWh/m² of irradiation—41% more than the same period last year and the best result ever since solar panels appeared on Belgian rooftops. And yet, 2024 was a leap year, meaning the sun had one extra day to shine in the first quarter.
Highest energy production
Energy company EnergyVision, the market leader in Belgium with tens of thousands of PV installations for households and businesses, achieved a record-breaking average yield of 128 kWh per installed kilowatt of solar panels in the first quarter. Compared to 2024, this represents a nearly one-quarter (24%) increase in yield.
"As of this year, solar panel owners are required to have a digital meter. And never has a year started better for your solar panels than in the first three months of 2025. So, you can forget all the doom and gloom from 2024 about solar panels and worthless solar energy." - Maarten Michielssens, CEO of EnergyVision
No negative injection price
April starts off sunny, and the outlook for the next two weeks remains bright. Good news for solar panel owners, who can once again cover a significant portion of their consumption for free. But what about the electricity you don’t use immediately? Will you have to pay if you inject too much solar energy back into the grid? Energy experts are already predicting negative injection prices for this summer. Not at EnergyVision.
"With us, you will never face a negative injection price. If we installed your solar panels, we handle the injection into the grid. Whether the injection price is positive or negative, we take on that risk. That way, our customers are never penalized for generating green electricity. And if you're an energy tariff customer with us but have your own solar panels, we also guarantee that your injection tariff will never be negative. We want to make this very clear: at EnergyVision, solar energy will never be worthless." - Maarten Michielssens, CEO of EnergyVision
