The drop in fossil fuel generation was driven by wind and solar growth as well as the recovery of hydropower.
Fossil fuels provided less than a quarter of the EU’s energy for the first time in April.
The good news comes from energy think tank Ember which found that the proportion of electricity generated by fossil fuels in the bloc fell to a record low of 23 per cent last month - a sharp drop of 22 per cent compared to April 2023 despite an increase in demand. It also surpasses the previous record low of 27 per cent from May 2023.
Wind and solar growth as well as the recovery of hydropower drove the fall in fossil fuel generation and increased the share of renewables in the electricity mix to a record 54 per cent.
Wind and solar alone generated more than a third of the EU’s electricity in April while gas and coal fell. Coal contributed just 8.6 per cent of the energy mix compared to 30 per cent in 2023. Gas provided 12.1 per cent of the EU’s electricity - a 22 per cent decline year-on-year.
Offshore wind was the best way to go here. We’re lucky with the North Sea, it’s relatively shallow (just up to 40m deep in many areas) and very windy. Turbines are enormous machines now reaching more than 200m high and more than 10MW, and growing, but all are still rather far out it even barely disturbs views from land. I’m sure there’s a lot of room to grow offshore wind in gulf of Mexico and east coast. West Coast would be harder I think because deep.
The problem is that not so much industry is around the North Sea. For Germany most of the industry is in the middle and south, so very far away from the generated energy. But in general I think the EU does a great job to show other countries that we could do a lot to reduce CO2 emissions. If only others would care and try to compete here….