Lots of European headlines this month about renewable costs coming even further below fossil fuels and about total renewable output surpassing many fossil fuels, especially in the UK. Overall...
Lots of European headlines this month about renewable costs coming even further below fossil fuels and about total renewable output surpassing many fossil fuels, especially in the UK. Overall electricity generation from wind turbines has steadily increased in the past decade.
Europe's utilities generated a record 193 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from wind sites in the October to December window in 2023 compared to 184 TWh from coal-fired power plants, data from think tank Ember shows.
Wind generation during the final quarter of 2023 was roughly 20% more than in the same quarter in 2022, and came despite widespread setbacks for the wind installation sector in 2023 due to high labour, materials and financing costs.
Germany plans a tender for 8 gigawatts (GW) of new offshore capacity in 2024, while Denmark is expected to begin auctions for a total of 9 GW of offshore projects this year, according to S&P Global.
France will also boost its wind power footprint over the coming year or so through the support of the construction of two floating wind farms with a collective capacity of up to 280 megawatts (MW) off the south coast.
As these and other projects come online, they will further lift Europe's total wind generation beyond the 604 TWh produced in all of 2023, and help the region extend its recent stretch of strong annual clean power expansions.
For context, total European electricity use in TWh in 2023 was something like 2809 TWh, at least for EU member states. That's about 10% of global electricity use. 604 TWh is a pretty sizable chunk of that, considering solar, hydro, and nuclear are also in the mix. In total, the EU energy mix in 2023 was about 54.32% renewable (including nuclear), 19.91% gas, 15.99% coal, and 9.79% miscellaneous renewables, fossil fuels, and bioenergy sources. Who's got momentum here?
I wish the the coal industry a quick and merciless death; the same for the electricity generation sector of the oil and gas industry. Current trends suggest renewables will continue to economically dominate fossil fuels. However, some of these trends are country-specific. The graphs provided in the article suggest that Germany's coal use since 2018 has been on a distinct decline; Poland's is nearly flat with a very slight decline; Turkey's is completely flat.
In any case, European regulations are encouraging safer and more sustainable energy generation practices in general. Few or no countries are on track to meet emissions limits designated in the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, but Europe as a bloc is doing an acceptable job at the green energy transition in the grand scheme of things. By 2030, coal will be a dead industry in Europe and natural gas will be decimated.
Lots of European headlines this month about renewable costs coming even further below fossil fuels and about total renewable output surpassing many fossil fuels, especially in the UK. Overall electricity generation from wind turbines has steadily increased in the past decade.
For context, total European electricity use in TWh in 2023 was something like 2809 TWh, at least for EU member states. That's about 10% of global electricity use. 604 TWh is a pretty sizable chunk of that, considering solar, hydro, and nuclear are also in the mix. In total, the EU energy mix in 2023 was about 54.32% renewable (including nuclear), 19.91% gas, 15.99% coal, and 9.79% miscellaneous renewables, fossil fuels, and bioenergy sources. Who's got momentum here?
I wish the the coal industry a quick and merciless death; the same for the electricity generation sector of the oil and gas industry. Current trends suggest renewables will continue to economically dominate fossil fuels. However, some of these trends are country-specific. The graphs provided in the article suggest that Germany's coal use since 2018 has been on a distinct decline; Poland's is nearly flat with a very slight decline; Turkey's is completely flat.
In any case, European regulations are encouraging safer and more sustainable energy generation practices in general. Few or no countries are on track to meet emissions limits designated in the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, but Europe as a bloc is doing an acceptable job at the green energy transition in the grand scheme of things. By 2030, coal will be a dead industry in Europe and natural gas will be decimated.
Mirror, for those hit by the paywall:
https://archive.is/jOBqG