Renewable generation overtook coal for the first time across the EU in 2017, according to a report by climate policy group Sandbag.
The found that the increase in renewables comes from wind, solar and biomass generation, as Europe’s hydro potential is largely tapped. Wind, solar and biomass rose by 12% in 2017 to 679 Terawatt hours, putting them above coal generation for the first time.
The report also found that Germany and the UK alone contributed to 56% of the growth in renewables in the past three years. Matthias Buck, director of European energy policy at Agora Energiewende, which co-produced the report said: “EU renewables growth has been increasingly reliant on the success story of wind in Germany, the UK and Denmark, which has been inspiring. If all countries in Europe engage in this, 35% renewable energy by 2030 is entirely possible. Solar deployment in particular is still surprisingly low, and needs to respond to the massive falls in costs”
Maria Connolly, head of energy and renewables TLT solicitors, commented: “The news that the UK is ahead of its EU peers in the deployment of clean energy projects will not come as a surprise to those in the industry. Following the end of subsidies, the expected down-turn in clean energy projects did not happen and the market has remained strong.”
She predicted that the next couple of yearly reports from Sandbag might have some interesting findings: “Over the next eighteen months, we would expect to see an increase in the number of projects that combine multiple technologies… As the project structures, commercial modelling and funding for these projects become more concrete, the sector is likely to break new ground as some truly innovative projects come to market. It will be interesting to see how the UK compares to its EU peers in twelve months’ time, and what type of clean energy projects are leading the way to our carbon neutral future.”
Power demand across the continent increased by 0.7%, the third year of increased consumption. Dave Jones, Sandbag’s energy analyst said: “With electricity consumption rising for the third year, countries need to reassess their efforts on energy efficiency. But to make the biggest difference to emissions, countries need to retire coal plants. We forecast Europe’s 258 operational coal plants last year emitted 38% of all EU ETS emissions, or 15% of total EU greenhouse gases.”
He urged more countries to commit to a coal phase out: “In 2017, Netherlands, Italy and Portugal added their names to the list of countries to phase-out coal, which is great progress. We need a fast and complete coal phase-out in Europe: the thought of charging electric cars in the 2030’s with coal just doesn’t compute.”
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