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Saturday, February 10th, 2018

EU EMISSIONS 30 January 2018 12:29 The EU got less electricity from coal than renewables in 2017

Author:     SIMON EVANS
Source:     CarbonBrief
Publication Date:     30 January 2018 12:29
 Link: EU EMISSIONS 30 January 2018 12:29 The EU got less electricity from coal than renewables in 2017
Stephan:   More good news about the transition out of the carbon era. Europe, in contrast with the U.S. is moving as fast as it can out of carbon era. For instance the goal in many European countries is no carbon powered vehicles on the road by 2040. But even before that, as this reports explains, they are working to close down coal.

EU electricity generation from wind, solar, biomass and coal. Credit: The European Power Sector in 2017, Sandbag and Agora Energiewende.

For the first time, the European Union generated more electricity from wind, solar and biomass than from coal in 2017, (emphasis added) according to new analysis from two thinktanks.

The figures, from London-based Sandbag and Berlin-based Agora Energiewende, are a best estimate, based on near-complete electricity market data from each of the 28 EU member states.

Their report says: “This is incredible progress, considering just five years ago coal generation was more than twice that of wind, solar and biomass.”

Despite this new milestone, EU power sector emissions were unchanged in 2017, the analysis suggests. Low-carbon sources met 56% of demand, a figure that is unchanged since 2014.

Renewable milestone

Wind, solar and biomass now supply more than a fifth of the electricity generated in the EU, at 20.9%, up from less than 10% in 2010. This is a few tenths of a percent more than coal (20.6%) and also more than gas […]

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1 Comment

  1. Mark R on Saturday, February 10, 2018 at 8:24 am

    Bravo!