Wind and solar overtakes fossil gas in Europe according to a new study
Europe’s political response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was to accelerate its electricity transition. There is now a focus on rapidly cutting gas demand—at the same time as phasing out coal. This means a massive scale-up in clean energy is on its way.
In 2022, wind and solar generated a record fifth of EU electricity (22%), for the first time overtaking fossil gas (20%), and remaining above coal power (16%).However, the shift away from fossil fuels was put on hold by the twin crises in Europe’s electricity system in 2022. A 1-in-500 year drought across Europe led to the lowest level of hydro generation since at least 2000, and there were widespread unexpected French nuclear outages just as German nuclear units were closing. This created a large 185 TWh gap in generation, equal to 7% of Europe’s total electricity demand in 2022. Five-sixths of the gap was made up by more wind and solar generation and a fall in electricity demand. But the remaining sixth was met by increased fossil generation. Since coal was less expensive than gas, coal accounted for the majority of the increase, rising 7% (+28 TWh) in 2022, compared to 2021. As a result, EU power sector emissions rose by 3.9% (+26 MtCO2) in 2022 compared to 2021. Gas generation was almost unchanged (+0.8%), and because gas was already more expensive than coal in 2021, there was no further switching from gas into coal in 2022.
It could have been much worse: wind, solar and a fall in electricity demand prevented a much larger return to coal. In context, the rise was not substantial: coal power increased by just 1.5 percentage points to generate 16% of EU electricity in 2022, remaining below 2018 levels. The 28 TWh rise in EU’s coal generation added only 0.3% to global coal
generation.
Ember’s analysis, “European Electricity Review,” also revealed that both wind and solar delivered through the energy crunch, for the first time generating more than a fifth of EU electricity in 2022 (22%), it was solar power that really shined, setting electricity generation records and saving billions in imported gas costs.
Solar set generation records across the continent
The year 2022 saw the largest ever absolute increase in solar electricity generation. It rose by 39 TWh (+24%), which was almost double the rise of any year so far.
That mirrored the 25% rise in capacity from 168 GW to 209 GW. New installations rose by a record 41 GW in 2022, which was 47% more than was installed in 2021.
Information Source: Read More “
Energy Monitors , Electric Power , Natural Gas , Oil , Climate , Renewable , Wind , Transition , LPG , Solar , Electric , Biomass , Sustainability , Oil Price , Electric Vehicles,Commodities , Shipping,
