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The European Union recorded a record drop in pollution from fossil fuel power plants last year, according to a new report. Energy think tank Ember, which analyzed the numbers, calls this an “unprecedented collapse in coal and gas power generation.” Renewable energy is finally starting to take over the power grid.
Fossil fuels have fallen to their lowest levels since reliable record-keeping began in 1990 and will account for less than a third of the EU’s electricity generation by 2023. Carbon-free power generation (including renewable energy and nuclear power) accounted for more than two. One-third of the electricity mix and twice as much as fossil fuels.
“Unprecedented Collapse in Coal and Gas Power Generation.”
“What is encouraging is that the structural decline in fossil fuels continues,” says Sarah Brown, Ember’s European program director. And although she started recording in 1990, she says, “We believe this is an all-time low because up until then it was dominated by fossil fuels and there was nothing else to replace them.”
Coal saw the steepest decline in 2023, with electricity generation down 26% from the previous year. Electricity generation from gas power plants last year fell by 15%, the steepest annual decline in at least decades. Overall, this means a significant 19% reduction in both fossil fuel production and global warming carbon dioxide emissions. This is an even bigger drop in power sector pollution than the region experienced in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic shut down business and travel.
Coal power generation had already begun to decline in the EU until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted countries to move away from Russian gas and led to a resurgence of coal. It now appears that this resurgence was a short-lived trend. Coal production has been cut in half from 2016 levels and is on track to be completely phased out, Brown said.
Renewable energy now accounts for 44% of the EU’s electricity mix, its highest share ever. Wind energy in particular will surge in 2023, generating 18% of electricity (equivalent to the electricity demand of the whole of France), surpassing gas for the first time. Solar power increased to 9% of the total, and hydropower recovered from the 2022 drought.
The hidden star of this story is energy efficiency. Thanks in part to efficiency gains, electricity demand in 2023 actually fell by 3.4%. Demand is expected to increase again in the future due to the electrification of cars and homes. That makes it all the more important to prioritize energy efficiency and bring more solar and wind farms online.
Much progress still needs to be made. Wind power increased by 13% in 2023, but will need to continue to grow by 15% each year for this decade to meet the EU’s clean energy targets, the report said.
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