Amid widespread uncertainty about the planet’s climate future, hopeful news emerges from time to time. For the first time in history, renewable energy More electricity produced from fossil fuels in the European Union in the first quarter of this year.
According to a report by consulting firm Ember, “The decline in fossil fuels is a sign of time. Coal and gas are very expensive and very dangerous; The European Union is gradually removing them.”
The report in question shows that in the first half of the year, 33 percent of the continent’s electricity was produced from coal and gas, for the first time ever below this. Electricity generation from renewable energies reached 36%.
The report adds: “Between January and June, fossil fuels produced 410 terawatt hours in the European Union, the lowest ever recorded in the electricity mix at 33%.” More than two-thirds of the 36% produced by renewable energy came from wind and solar.
This European ‘sorpasso’ of renewable energy has been possible for several reasons. The first stems from the global strategy against climate change. The EU has decided that it will be carbon neutral by 2050, which means minimal use of polluting resources such as oil, gas or coal.
This bet together dwindling nuclear energyleads to a rapid increase in the diffusion of renewable energy.
In addition, renewable energy sources give the EU energy autonomy and mean, for example, that the European Union is not dependent on regimes like Russia in terms of energy supply.
Demand drop
The increase in electricity generation from renewable sources does not make up for all that power generation from coal and gas has fallen. The difference is in one Decreased demand due to sharp rise in prices Energy realized from the end of 2021.
When demand is low, less electricity is produced and First thing to stop is coal and gas power plantsBecause the electricity they produce is more expensive and they emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.
This decline in demand allowed electricity generation at gas and coal power plants to decrease by 17% between the first half of 2022 and the same period of 2023.
In five countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland and Portugal), the decline in electricity generation from gas and coal in the first half of this year was more than 30% compared to the same period in 2022. Also for the first time coal, less than 10% of Europe’s electricity was produced in a given month, May.
still insufficient expansion
And yet it is not enough. The severity of the climatic situation and the inertia of the planet in terms of emissions into the atmosphere require even greater use of renewable energy sources. Europe’s carbon neutrality target will not be achieved at the current pace and the European Commission periodically reiterates to governments that they need to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies, particularly solar and wind.
According to the report, the decline from 2022 to 2023 was largely due to the aforementioned drop in demand driven by higher electricity prices. But, these prices are slowly returning to their normal margins, Therefore, if demand does not continue to decrease, Gas and coal won’t keep falling as before. Therefore, the expansion of renewable energy sources needs to be accelerated.
On the other hand, Electricity generation from hydraulic energy has also increased It is quite strong between the first half of 2022 and the same period of 2023 (11%), but its growth ability is limited because according to forecasts, precipitation and snowfall will not increase but decrease in the coming years.
Reference report: https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/eu-fossil-generation-hits-record-low-as-demand-falls/
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