Hungarian Solar Sets Record as Paks Plant Goes Dark in Danube Drought
With Hungary's nuclear plant forced offline by record-low river levels, solar generation stepped into the gap on a grid that relies on Paks for nearly half its power.
Hungarian solar generation set a new record this summer as historically low Danube water levels forced the Paks nuclear power plant offline, exposing how much of the country's supply buffer depends on a single riverside plant, Canary Media reported on Tuesday (2026-08-25). Europe experienced its hottest June on record, and the same heat waves that curtailed output at river-cooled nuclear plants drove solar yields to seasonal peaks across the continent. Hungary's growing solar fleet was in a position to deliver output the grid had not previously seen.5
Paks supplies close to half of Hungary's electricity under normal conditions, drawing on 2 GW of installed nuclear capacity. Losing that output in stages — first to cooling restrictions, then to full shutdown — created a supply hole that imports from neighbouring grids could not fully fill; those markets faced similar heat stress at the same time.4,2
The first restrictions came in late June and were triggered by temperature rather than volume. High Danube water temperatures forced Paks to cut output by 563 MW. Hungary's day-ahead power contract settled at EUR 222.73/MWh on Sunday (2026-06-28), surpassing what had been a six-month high of EUR 200.72/MWh set just days earlier, Montel reported.1
The following session was sharper. Hungarian day-ahead power jumped 31% on the day to EUR 290.71/MWh on Monday (2026-06-29), an 18-month high, with analysts citing heat-driven cuts at the 2 GW plant squeezing regional supply, according to Montel. A single-day move of that size in a European power day-ahead contract reflects how thin the buffer had become.2
The Danube's deeper problem emerged through July. On Tuesday (2026-07-28), Hungary's water managers recorded a gauge reading of 31 centimetres at Budapest — a level without precedent in the historical record. The previous all-time low of 33 centimetres was set on October 25, 2018, TechTimes reported, citing Hungarian data.3
Falling volume, not just high water temperatures, ultimately forced Paks offline entirely. Prime Minister Péter Magyar warned publicly of an energy crisis, and the European Commission said it was prepared to convene an emergency meeting of its Electricity Coordination Group, Euronews reported on Friday (2026-07-31).4
Solar took up more of the supply balance through this period. The same heat events that depleted the Danube delivered sustained irradiance across central Europe, and Hungary's solar fleet responded with output that surpassed previous records. Canary Media's Tuesday (2026-08-25) reporting described the summer's pattern as continent-wide: solar reaching new peaks precisely when conventional generation faced its most severe heat and drought constraints.5
The contribution is real but the pairing is asymmetric. The same drought that boosted solar irradiance lowered the Danube to the point where Paks could not operate at all. Solar peaks in daylight hours and in summer; Paks supplies continuous power, including overnight and through the winter months when central European irradiance drops steeply. If Danube levels do not recover quickly enough to allow Paks to restart before autumn demand picks up, solar cannot cover the gap. The Commission's emergency preparedness signals that officials are treating a prolonged outage as a live possibility. Paks' restart timeline and the rate at which the Danube recovers are the variables with the most bearing on how Hungary's grid enters the heating season.4,3,5