Renewables beat fossil fuels in EU for first time last year

Renewables are for the first time the dominant power source in Europe’s electric grid, Report states, citing the foreign press.

A year that saw pandemic restrictions sap energy demand across the continent, the drop in supply came mostly from more expensive power from fossil fuels. That helped green sources take the most significant share of the European Union’s generation, a portion that will keep growing as the bloc moves to achieve its climate goals.

The trajectory is likely to be steep. According to a report last week, Europe needs to double the share of electricity produced from renewable sources by the end of the decade to have a chance of meeting a stricter target of reducing emissions at least 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels.

Renewables produced 38% of the EU’s electricity in 2020, up from 34% in 2019. That was just enough to surpass fossil-powered generation for the first time, which dropped to 37%, according to grid data analysis by research organizations Ember and Agora Energiewende. The report adds to data that showed last year was the greenest ever for British power generation.

“At the start of a decade of global climate action, it is compelling that Europe has reached this green power tipping point,” said Dave Jones, an electricity analyst at Ember and the lead author of the report. “Rapid growth in wind and solar has forced coal into decline, but this is just the beginning.”