Wind and solar power produced more of the EU’s electricity than fossil gas for the first time last year.
Renewable energies were responsible for a fifth record (22 percent) of the block’s electricity, a new report from the clean energy think tank Ember shows.
Through the turmoil of 2022 – from cutting ties with Russia to climate-driven drought and rising gas prices – Europe’s clean energy transition has been soldiered on.
“Europe has avoided the worst of the energy crisis,” says Dave Jones, Ember’s chief data officer. “The shocks of 2022 caused only a small ripple in coal power and a large wave of support for renewables. Any fear of a coal rebound is now dead.
Gas energy will account for 20 percent of the EU’s electricity in 2022, while coal will take 16 percent of the share. This represents a mere 1.5 percent increase over last year, as solar has helped prevent a resurgence of the climate-destroying fuel.
Here are the key electricity narratives behind these data points.
Hydro and nuclear power dipped in 2022
As spring came, Europe scrambled to cut ties with its largest supplier of fossil gas. Read also : Solar turbines san diego layoffs. This was followed by a drought of 1 in 500 years in the summer, drying up the hydro reservoirs of the continent.
As a result, hydropower has fallen to its lowest share of electricity since at least 2000.
The nuclear share has also dropped significantly. This was largely due to outages at French power plants in need of maintenance, but the climate also played a role as some nuclear reactors have to cut production to prevent overheating the rivers that are used to cool.
At the same time, the demand for electricity increased as people turned on their air conditioning during the heat wave.
Combined, nuclear and hydroelectric generation fell by 185 TWh per hour, equivalent to 7 percent of total EU generation in 2022.
There was the fear that coal would be roped in to plug the gap. But despite importing 22 million tonnes of extra coal throughout the year, the EU ended up using only a third of it.
Instead, record growth in solar and wind have been the wildest successes.
Which EU country is the solar energy leader?
Solar generation grew the fastest in 2022, growing by 24 percent to avoid 10 billion euros in gas costs, Ember calculates. To see also : Engineers design battery to power flying cars.
This is almost twice their previous record, and 20 EU countries have posted new national records.
The Netherlands is well at the top of the ranking, having generated 14 percent of its electricity from the sun. It surpassed the naturally sunnier Spain, which now follows Greece, Hungary and Cyprus to make up the top five EU countries for part of the sun’s electricity generation.
“Solar is booming when Europe needs it most,” says Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe. “These new numbers show that rapid solar growth is indeed the foundation of the energy transition.”
Some numbers can be traced to well-designed policies; the net-metering scheme of the Netherlands, for example, which favors residential solar. But Ember’s Jones also attributes the impetus to people who want to do their bit from a climate and energy security standpoint.
“It’s very easy to start looking at the EU and national politics and see how they fall,” he told Euronews Green. “And they all have an impact. But it’s interesting to see it build from the bottom, from the public itself.”
Why did electricity demand drop in winter?
Europe saw a significant drop in electricity demand in winter, 10 percent of the previous year. Was it also because of the citizens who acted in solidarity in times of crisis?
It’s a little more difficult to disentangle, Jones explains. Milder temperatures have also played their part, but more pressing is the crisis of the cost of living, which continues to restrain people’s energy use.
“The problem, from a policymaker’s perspective, is to make sure people don’t confuse energy efficiency with falling demand,” he says. (The first involves getting more out of your energy, fostered by genuine and long-lasting energy improvements).
“I don’t think this is a win at the moment,” he adds, “but I would like it if it could be translated into a win. As in the way people have really started to adopt solar panels, people have a interest in energy efficiency and using less energy.
“So how do you really capitalize on that goodwill and put the right policies in place to encourage change to happen faster?”
What’s the energy and electricity outlook for 2023?
It’s early days, but 2023 is on track to be even cleaner than last year. 24 days later, the EU had already dropped by 37 percent in gas generation.
Ember estimates that fossil fuel generation could drop by 20 percent this year, double the previous record by 2020.
It is clear that we are in the dying days of coal. Although delayed developments such as the United Kingdom opening a new coal mine in Cumbria, or Germany allowing the village of Lützerath to be destroyed make depressing news, Jones describes them as a “small part in motion” in the scheme of things. Although it is a “symbolic part that shows how deep this ambition on the climate [runs]”.
Gas is heading even faster toward exit in 2023, Ember estimates.
What we can say for sure, with all the certainty of hindsight, is that 2022 was a year of bold action – in which energy insecurity catalyzed rather than derailed Europe’s electric transition.
“I think the ferocity of this will catch people by surprise,” says Jones, “and it will really show Europe’s electric transition in hyper drive; in the full light of day how fast it’s actually happening.”