Record growth in wind and solar energy helped cushion the blow from a triple crisis in the EU’s electricity sector last year – which only caused what’s been termed a “minor ripple” in coal power growth.
As ties with Russian gas supply were cut, Europe was also challenged by low levels of hydro power due to drought and a bunch of nuclear power station units being offline. But renewables stepped in to help save the day.
According to energy think-tank Ember’s European Electricity Review released today, wind and solar power generated 22% of EU electricity in 2022, a new record. 2022 was the first time wind and solar overtook gas-fired electricity generation, which accounted for 20%. As for coal power, it increased by only 1.5 percentage points – 16% of EU electricity in 2022 – and there were year-on-year falls during the last four months of 2022.
Ember’s Dave Jones said Europe has avoided the worst of the energy crisis.
“The shocks of 2022 only caused a minor ripple in coal power and a huge wave of support for renewables,” he said. “Any fears of a coal rebound are now dead.”
Aside from the growth in renewables, also playing a significant role in reining in fossil fuel based electricity generation were a drop in demand resulting from mild weather, skyrocketing electricity prices and a general increase in awareness of the need to reduce electricity consumption.
Solar Power Surges
Last year solar energy generation racked up a record increase of 39 TWh, up 24%. Solar power produced 7.3% (203 TWh) of EU electricity in 2022, up from 5.7% in 2021. 20 EU countries set new records in 2022 for PV’s share in electricity generation.
41 GW of solar capacity was installed in 2022, 47% more than was added in 2021. The top 5 countries for capacity additions were:
- Germany: 7.9 GW
- Spain: 7.5 GW
- Poland 4.9 GW
- the Netherlands: 4 GW
- France: 2.7 GW
Just as comparison, around 1.4 GW of large-scale solar was connected in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) last year. But home solar uptake in Australia and other small-scale PV systems below 100kW capacity will add at least another 2.5GW to 2022’s total.
And on that note, EU households also embraced rooftop solar panels last year, installing a whopping 25 GW in 2022, which was 8 GW more than in 2021. Ember says rooftop solar power now represents 66% of the EU’s total installed solar capacity of 209 GW.
The role solar energy will play in the EU will only get bigger states Ember.
“Four years from now, and it is possible that solar will have tripled again to nearly 600 GW.”
Fossil Fuels To Fall Further In 2023
Ember says with a rebound in hydro generation, offline nuclear units coming back online, wind and solar deployment accelerating and electricity demand likely to continue to fall in the months ahead, Europe should see a huge fall in fossil fuel based power generation this year. The company estimates fossil generation could plummet by as much as 20% in 2023, which would be double the previous record from 2020.
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This seems a little misleading. Per the table on page 5 of the report:
-Nuclear+Hydro dropped from over 45% in 2000, held around the 40% mark until 2016, and crashed to about 33% last year.
-Coal dropped from 30% in 2000, held around 25% until 2016, crashed to about 13% in 2020, and spiked back up to 16% last year.
-Gas rose from about 13% in 2000 to about 21% in 2008, dipped back again in 2014, rose back to about 20% in 2020, dropped about 1% in 2021, and was back to 20% last year. In other words for all the worries about a gas crisis due to the Russian invasion, and despite Germany and other nations actually suffering a gas crisis, it’s not apparent in the generation data.
-Other forms of power remain constant at 10%
– Wind and Solar rose from about 1% in 2000, hit 10% about 2013, hit 15% about 2018, hit 20% in 2020, actually dropped to about 19% in 2021, and spiked to about 23% in 2022.
Interestingly enough the report notes demand in Europe dropped by 7.9% in Q4 2022.
I do wonder if the rush to Wind + Solar has somewhat peaked. From the report:
Nuclear comprised 21.9% of EU electricity, but France and Slovakia both rely on it for over 50% of theirs while Belgium, Hungary, Solvenia, Czechia, Finland and Bulgaria rely on it for a third or more.
Gas comprised 19.9% of EU electricity, but Malta relied on it for over 80% of its power, Italy for over 50%, Ireland, the Netherlands, Greece, and Portugal for over a third.
Coal comprised 16% of EU electricity, but Poland relied on it for over 50% of its power, Czechia, Bulgaria, and Germany for over a third.
Wind comprised 15% of EU electricity, but only Denmark relied on it for over 50% of its power, only Lithuania and Ireland relying on it for over a third.
Hydro comprised 10.1% of EU electricity, but Austria and Latvia both rely on it for over 50% of theirs while Sweden, and Croatia rely on it for a third or more.
Solar comprised 7.3% of EU electricity, but only the Netherlands, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Spain, and Cyprus relied on it for more than 10% of their power.
It’s interesting stats, but renewables seem to have a looong way to go and aren’t a one size fits all.
I think the rate of renewable adoption will only pick up. Solar silicon price are falling and lithium prices are expected to come down next year, so solar and battery storage will be cheaper. Falling commodity prices also means traditional pumped storage becomes cheaper as steel and concrete drop in price.
George Kaplan,
“It’s interesting stats, but renewables seem to have a looong way to go and aren’t a one size fits all.”
It depends on what you define as “a looong way to go”, aye George?
Evidence/data indicates renewables are trending to be the dominant global electricity source in the next few years:
– per the graph shown in a tweet by an energy economics researcher, based on data from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy – 2022:
* Solar and wind alone now generate more energy than nuclear;
* Based on the current ten-year trend renewables are expected to overtake hydro by 2023.
https://twitter.com/finmuc_schmidt/status/1611633193047801856
– per a tweet on 6 Dec 2022 by Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency:
https://twitter.com/fbirol/status/1599997739617914880
I cycled from Sweden to Bosnia then north-west to Italy last year. Rooftop solar was very evident in every country except Croatia and not so much in Italy. The extra 41GW should generate 200TWh+ per year (ie same as total for 2022) so 2023 should show another big increase. However solar much more seasonal than here so a lot of wind generation required for winter