Energy transition in the European Union: renewables beat coal

More electricity was generated in Europe from wind, sun and biomass in 2017 than from lignite and hard coal, think tanks Agora Energiewende* and Sandbag say in their annual evaluation of the European energy transition. However, renewable energy sources are growing very unevenly across the EU, the authors found. The UK and Germany contributed to more than half of the increase in the past three years. Others, like France, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary, have shown very low growth. Despite the increased use of renewable sources, greenhouse gas emission rose slightly due to higher electricity consumption and less hydropower and nuclear power in the electricity mix.

Read the evaluation in English here.

See the CLEW article Renewables cover about 100% of German power use for first time ever and the CLEW factsheet Coal in Germany for background.

*Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Energiewende is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.