Green energy overtakes Fossil Fuels and Nuclear in Europe

Environmental group Ember in London has reported that Renewable Energy has contributed a larger percentage to the European energy mix than fossil fuels or nuclear in the first half of 2020.

They state that in the first half of this year, approximately 40% of all the energy produced in the EU’s 27 countries came from renewable energy whereas fossil fuels accounted for 34%. The other 26% of energy production came from Nuclear and imports. Ember also reports that carbon dioxide emissions fell by 23%.

A continuing trend
This continues the trend of the last decade, as renewable energy generation gradually replaces fossil fuels based generation. In the first half of 2020:

• renewables generated 40% of the EU-27’s electricity, whereas fossil fuels generated 34%. Most of this is as a result of coal being replaced by wind and solar.
• Coal’s market share has halved since 2016 to just 12% of the EU-27’s electricity generation.
  Every country that had coal to start with saw a fall in coal generation.
• Wind and solar has increased its market share from 13% in 2016 to 21% in the first half of 2020.
• Hydro generated 13% of Europe’s electricity.
• Bioenergy generated 6% of Europe’s electricity.