Together, wind and solar generated more electricity in the European Union than fossil gas for the first time last year, providing 22% of the EU’s output, according to a report published by the Ember think tank on Tuesday 31 January.
While electricity generation from hydro and nuclear power plants was at its lowest level for at least two decades, this record level, coupled with a drop in electricity demand, helped to mitigate the return to coal.
Wind and solar have in fact partly filled the electricity production gap in 2022 - corresponding to 7% of Europe’s total electricity demand - due to the lack of water and the shutdown of a large part of the French nuclear fleet.
The level of electricity demand also helped to reduce the deficit, falling by 7.9% in the last quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year. Ember explains this decrease by the mild weather, rising electricity prices, improved energy efficiency and voluntary electricity savings.
According to the report, the share of coal has thus increased by only 1.5 percentage points over the past year (+28 TWh), reaching 16% of the EU’s electricity production, with consecutive decreases in the last 4 months of 2022.
The share of gas has increased from 19 to 20%.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/550 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)