The year 2020 has marked an unprecedented turning point in the European energy sector. For the first time, renewables have overtaken fossil fuels to become the EU’s main source of electricity, says a report byEmber and Agora Energiewende published on 25 January.
According to these two think tanks, renewable energies provided 38% of the EU’s electricity in 2020 (compared with 34.6% in 2019), while the share of fossil fuels in European electricity production fell to 37%.
The growth of renewable energies in Europe is mainly driven by wind and solar power, with production increases of 9 and 15% respectively in 2020, the document shows.
The share of bioenergy and hydroelectric power remained relatively unchanged.
As for fossil fuels, their decline in the EU’s electricity mix is mainly due to a 20% drop in coal production in 2020 (-50% since 2015). A trend that can be observed in almost all Member States (with Poland lagging behind), the authors note.
While gas production has only slightly decreased (-4%), nuclear production fell by 10% in 2020.
Moreover, while Covid-19 has had an impact in all countries, “its impact on the overall trend from fossil fuels to renewables was quite limited”, the report says.
Finally, while welcoming these results, the authors point out that the growth in wind and solar generation will need to almost triple between 2020 and 2030 to achieve a reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55% by 2030.
“As electricity demand bounces back in 2021, wind and solar will need to rise at a faster rate if the recent falls in coal are to be sustained”, they warn.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3sQN9mq (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)