Heatwave: European rivers face historic drought

Solar eclipses are far easier to manage than Europe’s cross-border electricity politics In the end, the solar eclipse did not cause the electricity grid to flicker. The early drop-off in solar generation was manageable, just as the National Energy System Operator (Neso), the state-owned body responsible for keeping the lights on, predicted. Gas-fired generators still had to be paid nose-bleed prices to fire up, and power via high-voltage interconnectors to continental Europe was also expensively sourced. But the system worked. A summer of heatwaves, however, has highlighted European grids’ reliance on those interconnectors – including seven between the UK and the continent – in an age of extreme weather and greater use of intermittent renewables. On Thursday, another low-wind “heat dome” day, a fifth of power to the British grid was coming from the continent at 10am. Cables from France alone were meeting 11%, or 3.54 gigawatts, of demand, or more than twice as much as the output at that time from the UK’s entire fleet of windfarms...

The drought roasting much of Europe this summer is taking a heavy toll on crops across the continent, from potatoes in the Netherlands to corn in Bosnia. Triodos, a Dutch bank with a focus on sustainability, has warned that this could reduce gross domestic product across the EU by 1 percent for 2026 – or around €180 billion.

Kew Gardens in London hits 38.1C and 40C-plus expected in parts of Europe with continent trapped under heat dome Europe heatwave – latest updates The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C in southern England as Europe sweltered under a major heat dome. As temperatures on the continent approached 40C at the peak of the summer’s fifth heatwave, the thermometer at Kew Gardens in west London surpassed the previous high of 38C on 28 June, the Met Office said...