EU Energy Dominated by Wind and Solar for the First Time

Marking a significant milestone in Europe’s energy transition, renewable energy sources beat out fossil fuels in the European Union's energy-mix throughout May. After decades of effort, this is the very first time that this has happened.  

The stand-out renewables were, unsurprisingly, wind and solar, outputs from which outpaced that of all fossil fuels put together. Taken together, wind and solar now supply almost a third of the bloc’s electricity, just about edging out the contribution of fossil fuels which currently sits at a record low of 27%. In fact, solar energy alone accounted for a record 14%, exceeding coal production all by itself – a milestone of its own. It’s been suggested that this may not become the new normal, however, as analysts have noticed an irregular surge in demand for solar over the last few months. Similarly, demand for electricity on the whole has been a little subdued, perhaps tipping things in favour of renewable energy which has next to no baseload or inertia.  

Nevertheless, it’s quite clear that things have been trending in this direction for quite some time, with several member-states dumping remarkable sums into renewables over the last few years. For example, Portugal expanded its solar portfolio by over 50% in 2022, supplying approximately one million homes and helping to ensure that half of the nation’s electricity was generated renewably in April. Others in the European Union, like Spain, Sweden, and Belgium, have also set internal records for renewable energy generation this year as a result of concentrated investment. It’s reasonable, then, to expect further dominance of renewables in the coming years – and not only because renewables are ramping up... 

It has been over a year since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, bringing insecurity into a European energy system that has been highly dependent on the Federation’s coal, oil and gas for quite some time. Indeed, fuel has been a prevailing theme, weapon and objective in this invasion. In some of the war’s most recent horrors, both Ukrainian and Russian energy infrastructure has come under attack, including the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in occupied Ukraine. As a result, Europe has brought forward its transition, such that coal and natural gas have been driven down to their lowest share in the region’s energy generation since 2018, sitting at just 10% and 15%, respectively. With regards to coal and gas, Germany’s a pretty good litmus test, as it’s highly dependent on both; there’s not a German alive today who has lived through a period of time where coal was at such a low ebb as the most recent period. Similarly, Italian officials announced their intention to have all of its coal-fired power plants closed by 2024, a full year ahead of schedule. 

But this is only one dimension of what some commentators have dubbed the “triple crisis” of European energy. Firstly, as the continent continues to warm, facing more and more frequent heatwaves, subsequent droughts hamstring the capacities of hydropower sources. Secondly, wide-spread hitches in the functioning of nuclear infrastructure has caused a rise in outages. When all three threats are taken together, they place significant pressure on member-states to move even further in the direction of particularly wind and solar energy, which many members have been vigorously pursuing by frantically installing solar farms and wind farms all over the shop.  

There’s really no downplaying such a huge stride forward for an entire continent, not just a single nation – and there’s a lot more in the offing, with the dawning of the European super-grid on the horizon.