TELF AG measures the progress of renewable energy in Europe
A record year for clean energy
The energy objectives set by international institutions, such as those developed by the European Union, are generally perceived as very ambitious and somewhat challenging to achieve, especially in the short or medium term. One of these, included in the repowerEU plan, for example, sets the goal according to which by 2030 72% of European electricity generation should come from renewable sources. Considering the current production level from these sources, it would mean that in just six years, the amount of energy produced through solar and wind systems would at least double. Therefore, the achievement of this ambitious target still seems quite far away, but the path taken by the nations of the European Union appears to be the right one.
According to the data in the Ember think tank report, what has just ended would be a record year for renewable sources and the overall reduction of emissions. In the electricity sector alone, the latter would have decreased by 19%, going beyond the massive drop recorded in 2020 during the worst months of the health emergency. According to the report, this situation was also contributed to by a pronounced reduction in the electricity demand, which fell by 3.4% compared to 2022, mainly due to the increase in temperatures and the evident decrease in energy-intensive industrial consumption. For the first time, renewable energies have exceeded the threshold of 40% of electricity production in Europe, a growth also due to the newfound vitality of the hydroelectric sector (which is responsible for 12% of total energy production). At the moment, clean energy sources would, therefore, have exceeded two-thirds of the energy mix in the community area.
The consequences on raw materials
The growth of renewables would have resulted in a natural decline in gas consumption levels, which last year would have reached an all-time low since 1990. According to the information in the report, gas undoubtedly represents one of the energy sources destined to go down the road, particularly if wind and solar growth levels continue to maintain the momentum demonstrated in 2023.
One of the most interesting data in the Ember report is linked to the performance of renewable sources during 2023: last year, wind and solar would have produced 27% of all European electricity, carving out an ever-increasing role in the mixed energy of the EU countries. Wind, in particular, overtook gas for the first time, recording an increase of 13% and rising to 18% in the total energy mix. Despite the persistence of some bureaucratic obstacles that risk slowing down its development – such as the timeframes for authorizations for onshore and offshore parks, which take between 4 and 8 years – 2024 could prove to be an unprecedented year for the wind sector, in particularly for the offshore one, with as many as 50 Gw to be auctioned according to the data published in the report. In this specific sector, the most virtuous country remains Denmark, 58% of whose electricity is generated by wind.
The solar energy sector has also grown massively, but in 2023, it generated only 9% of total electricity in Europe. The most exciting performance is undoubtedly that of Greece, a country in which the solar energy sector contributes to the generation of 19% of total electricity. Hungary, Spain, and the Netherlands are other nations with high solar energy percentages.
