Solar and wind produced more energy in Europe than fossil fuels in the first half of the year

If it continues to invest in solar and wind power, the European Union will be able to free itself from dependence on fossil fuels.This is demonstrated by data from the Ember think tank.

• In the first half of 2024, fossil fuels covered 27 percent of energy production in the European Union.
• Conversely, wind and solar have reached 30 percent:it is a historic overtaking, never recorded before.

“We are witnessing a historic change and it is happening rapidly.”Thus Chris Rosslowe, analyst at the think tank Ember, comments the new report on the energy production in the European Union between January and June 2024.A semester in which, for the first time ever, solar and wind they have surpassed fossil fuels.“If member states maintain momentum in deploying wind and solar energy, then we will truly begin to see freedom from dependence on fossil energy,” Rosslowe continues.

The slow abandonment of fossil fuels

On the one hand, therefore, there are the fossil fuels.Obsolete, harmful to the climate and health and, fortunately, increasingly marginal in the European Union's energy mix.Despite an increase of 0.7 percent in the demand for electricity recorded after two years of decline, in the first half of 2024 fossil fuels generated "just" 343 TWh.That is 27 percent of total production.This is 71 TWh (17 percent) less than in the first half of 2023.

Specifically, again compared to the same period of the previous year, the coal sees a collapse of 24 percent and the gas by 14 percent.This is mainly thanks to five nations.First of all the Germany, where coal provided 20 percent of the electricity:just a year earlier it was at 26 percent.In all, German fossil energy production fell by 19 TWh, or 16 percent.Me too'Italy recorded a 21 percent decline in fossils, while Spain, France and Belgium have significantly reduced the role of gas.

All this brought tangible and immediate results.Compared to the same period last year, the greenhouse gas emissions of the energy sector fell by 17 percent.They are therefore 31 percent lower than in the first half of 2022;an even more significant decline than that recorded between 2020 and 2018, with the imposition of measures lockdown for the pandemic.

The cavalcade of solar and wind energy in Europe

Conversely, the renewables they make a visible leap forward.To be precise, energy production solar grows by 25 TWh compared to the first half of 2023:the increase is therefore 21 percent.It is even more significant that the fact that this trend involves various territories, including Germany (+14 percent), Spain (+13 percent), Italy (+17 percent) and Poland (+37 percent) hundred).There was also a significant increase inwind power:is equal to 9 percent compared to the first half of 2023, i.e. 20 TWh more, almost half of which in Germany (5.5 TWh) and in Netherlands (4,6).

Taken together, therefore, renewable sources generate 30 percent of electricity in the European Union in the first half of the year.Fossil fuels, however, stop at 27 percent:it's a historic overtaking, never recorded before.They are well 13 out of 27 member states where solar and wind have produced more energy than fossil fuels;and for Germany, Belgium, Hungary and Holland it is the first time.It does not appear in this list Italy, where clean sources have an ever-increasing weight, especially because they are driven by hydroelectric power plants.