European Union Ditching Fossil Fuel Quick, Changing with Photo voltaic & Wind

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The European Fee not too long ago printed its State of the Power Union Report 2024. The Fee says that the report “describes how the EU has managed unprecedented challenges within the power coverage panorama throughout this Fee’s mandate, equipping the EU with a regulatory framework for pursuing the clear power transition and laying the foundations for renewed financial progress and competitiveness.”

One of many notable challenges the EU is going through in the mean time, after all, is the continued Russia invasion of Ukraine. Having beforehand relied on an unlimited quantity of fossil fuel (aka pure fuel) from Russia, the EU has needed to discover methods to switch it. A part of that has been getting fossil fuel from elsewhere (most notably, the US). Nonetheless, a part of that has concerned merely reducing demand for fossil fuel. Total, it’s spectacular how a lot the Union has been ready to try this, as evidenced within the following chart:

“The share of Russian fuel in EU imports dropped from 45% in 2021 to 18% by June 2024, whereas imports from trusted companions like Norway and the US have elevated,” the European Fee writes.

Naturally, a lot of the technique for lowering their habit to fossil fuel is by constructing extra renewable power capability. Throughout the new report itself, the European Fee writes, “Particularly, the scale up of renewable power manufacturing was on the centre of the REPowerEU Plan’s goal to construct a safe and decarbonised power system within the EU. The most recent information present glorious outcomes with the rise of put in wind and photo voltaic capability by 36% between 2021 and 2023, saving roughly 35 billion cubic meters (bcm) of fuel over 2 years. With 56 GW of recent photo voltaic power capability put in in 2023, the EU has set yet one more report, surpassing the extra 40 GW put in in 2022.”

Right here’s a chart visualizing cumulative put in capability of wind and solar energy on the finish of 2021, new capability added in 2022, and projected new capability additions in 2023 and 2024:

Not too shabby. Nonetheless, there’s at all times extra to do. “These figures characterize essential steps in the appropriate route, however additional acceleration is required to fulfill the REPowerEU targets beneath the EU Photo voltaic Power Technique and attain a complete of not less than 700 GW capability by 2030, up from the estimated 263 GW put in on the finish of 2023,” the Fee provides. “As for wind energy, 16 GW of recent capability was put in within the EU in 2023, reaching a complete 221 GW. Whereas this reveals good progress, the facility sector wants to extend the tempo of set up to fulfill the EU’s bold renewable power targets, a problem to which the Fee has responded with the adoption of the Wind Energy Bundle, whereas striving for a balanced deployment in collaboration with native residents to keep away from that the power transition is challenged due to issues over landscapes, biodiversity, cultural heritage and existence, particularly in rural areas.”

Clearly, the European Union is bettering on renewables and putting in them at a quicker and quicker tempo. However probably the most uplifting a part of all of that is maybe that they nonetheless see progress as too gradual and are implementing extra applications and plans to hurry up the transition. Circling again to photo voltaic, the report provides, “Over the past years, the EU has taken a number of initiatives to strengthen the help to the European photovoltaic manufacturing sector by launching the European Photo voltaic PV Business Alliance, adopting a Photo voltaic Constitution, and establishing a public-private co-programmed partnership to help its coordinated R&I efforts.”

So, I feel we will sit up for continued, robust progress in Europe in coming years. For now, although, we will rejoice within the progress made prior to now few years beneath distinctive circumstances.