Wind and solar overtake fossil gas to produce record fifth of EU electricity

Europe has avoided the worst of the energy crisis. The shocks of 2022 only caused a minor ripple in coal power and a huge wave of support for renewables. Any fears of a coal rebound are now dead.

Dave Jones
‍Head of Data Insights, Ember

Europe’s clean power transition emerges from this crisis stronger than ever. Not only are European countries still committed to phasing out coal, they are now striving to phase out gas as well. The energy crisis has undoubtedly sped up Europe’s electricity transition. Europe is hurtling towards a clean, electrified economy, and this will be on full display in 2023. Change is coming fast, and everyone needs to be ready for it.

Dave Jones
‍Head of Data Insights

We are seeing a remarkable acceleration in the pace with which renewable energy is being built. Especially for offshore wind and rooftop solar the numbers are impressive. It’s clear that European citizens want to benefit from cheap, clean energy. It shows that our target of 45% renewables by 2030 is ambitious but entirely feasible. Europeans know that we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Renewables are crucial to tackle the climate crisis and cut air pollution. They are also crucial to end our dependence on Russian fossil fuels. The ongoing energy crisis will still bring another difficult winter, but the more renewables we have, the more sovereign we are in our energy supply.

Solar is stepping up right when Europe needs it most. These new numbers show that rapid solar growth is truly the foundation of the energy transition. In 2023, with the right support, solar will break more records, reduce fossil energy demand further, and take us one year closer to a 100% renewable Europe.

Wind and solar generated more electricity than gas in 2022. And Europe built 15 GW of new wind. That’s not too bad given the challenges the wind industry faced last year. But much more is needed to meet Europe’s renewables targets. REPowerEU has started to simplify the long and complex permitting procedures – good. But the EU must also ramp up its clean energy industrial policy – and get its market design right so that Europe becomes an attractive place for renewables investments again. The Net Zero Industries Act needs to strengthen the wind energy supply chain and support investments in turbine and component manufacturing, ports, grids and vessels.

This report shows Europe can afford a sigh of relief: the much-touted coal revival has turned out to be a non-event with solar power and a stellar EU wide savings effort playing a central role in keeping the lights on. An unusually warm winter however played its part too and energy ministers will now need to use the forthcoming spring and summer to further improve its energy security and support the continued large-scale role out of renewables and saving measures. Agreeing to setting the EU’s RePowerEU targets for 2030 at 45% RES and 13% EE as a minimum will be a crucial first step in that direction.

European Electricity Review 2023 proves that demand reduction, coupled with significantly more wind and solar generation can replace fossil fuels in the electricity sector. It should not take a fossil gas crisis to hit in order to grasp this and move accordingly. European co-legislators, currently negotiating on the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Directives, must ride this wave and agree on higher energy savings and sustainable renewables targets.

Europe is going through what IEA executive director Fatih Birol describes as the biggest energy crisis in history. Yet EU coal power generation has only increased by a meagre seven percent, as record output of solar and wind powers us through the crisis. Despite this, countries like Bulgaria and Romania are trying to use the moment to construct a narrative that coal has a future. Given the depth of the crisis, and the small bounce for coal, it’s evidently clear that it hasn’t.