Solar energy to overtake coal in EU for the first time in 2024

At the same time, gas-fired generation "declined for the fifth consecutive year and total fossil-fired electricity generation reached a historic low," think tank Ember reported in a report on electricity in Europe.

“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy,” says Dr Chris Rosslowe, lead author of the report. “At the start of the European Green Deal in 2019, few thought the EU’s energy transition would be where it is today: wind and solar are pushing coal to the margins and gas into structural decline.”

Overall, the strong growth in solar and the recovery in hydroelectric power have brought the share of renewables to 47% of the electricity production of the 27, compared to 29% for fossil fuels, the group specifies in its "European Electricity Review".

By comparison, renewables accounted for 21,4% of electricity generation in the United States and 30,2% in China, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2022. In the United Kingdom, renewables accounted for 45% of electricity last year, according to a study by Carbon Brief.

Despite this progress, the EU, which is the bloc furthest advanced in decarbonisation, remains the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

“The growth in solar since 2019 has allowed the EU to avoid €59 billion in fossil fuel imports,” Chris Rosslowe told AFP. “So the EU would have had to spend that much money on fossil fuels for electricity generation if wind and solar had not grown that much over that period.”

These trends are widespread across the EU, Ember points out. Solar is growing in all countries and more than half of countries have now either phased out coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, or reduced its share to less than 5% in their energy mix.

"Negative prices" and storage

Headwinds to renewable energy have been building both in Europe, where some elements of the Green Deal are increasingly contested, and in the United States, where Donald Trump has already signed an executive order hampering the development of new wind energy projects.

However, "it is necessary to accelerate efforts, particularly in the wind sector" which must more than double in capacity by 2030, warns Chris Rosslowe.

The European electricity system will also have to gain in flexibility and therefore in storage capacities in order to make the most of renewable energies which are by definition intermittent.

Because the abundance of solar energy in 2024 has helped to drive down midday prices and sometimes caused "negative prices" during hours when electricity is sold on markets below zero due to an overabundance of supply relative to demand.

They represent 4% of hours on average in the EU, compared to 2% in 2023, and occurred practically everywhere among the 27, Ember underlines.

The think tank says these price differentials could help consumers reduce their bills if demand can be shifted to periods of abundant solar production. Electricity suppliers could also store electricity produced during peak production and distribute it when demand picks up.

Battery deployment has progressed significantly in recent years, with installed capacity reaching 16 GW in 2023 compared to 8 GW in 2022, according to Ember. But this capacity is concentrated in a small number of countries: 70% of existing batteries were located in Germany and Italy at the end of 2023.

“We now need more flexibility to ensure that the energy system adapts to new realities: more storage and increased smart electrification in heating, transport and industry,” said Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, the European photovoltaics association, as quoted by Ember.

"The EU's competitiveness is intrinsically linked to the rapid deployment of clean energy and flexibility solutions," adds Jacopo Tosoni, from the European Association for Energy Storage (EASE). "Renewable energy and storage are becoming the pillars of the energy transition," he stresses.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.