Solar energy replaced coal for the first time in the European Union in 2024 and made it possible to increase the share of renewable energies to almost half of the electricity production of the 27, according to a report released on Thursday.
At the same time, gas-fired generation “declined for the fifth consecutive year and total fossil electricity production reached a historic low,” the Ember think tank reported in a report on electricity in Europe.
“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy,” said Dr Chris Rosslowe, lead author of the report. “At the start of the European Green Deal in 2019, few people thought that the EU's energy transition would be where it is today: wind and solar relegate coal to the margins and push gas into decline structural”.
In total, the strong growth of solar energy and the recovery of hydraulic energy brought the share of renewables to 47% of the electricity production of the 27. Fossil fuels fell to 29% compared to 39% in 2019, a time when renewables represented only 34%, specifies the group in its “European Electricity Review”.
“The growth of solar energy since 2019 has allowed the EU to avoid 59 billion euros in fossil fuel imports,” underlines Chris Rosslowe in an interview with AFP. “The EU would therefore have had to spend this much money on fossil fuels for electricity production if wind and solar energy had not experienced this growth during this period,” he said.
“Emissions from the electricity sector have now fallen to half of their maximum level in 2007,” he said.
These trends are widespread in Europe, emphasizes Ember. Solar power is progressing in all EU countries and more than half have now either eliminated coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, or reduced its share to less than 5% in their energy mix.
– “Negative prices” and storage –
However, much remains to be done, warns Chris Rosslowe. “It is necessary to accelerate efforts, particularly in the wind power sector” which must more than double in capacity by 2030.
-The European electricity system will also have to gain in flexibility and therefore in storage capacities in order to make the most of renewable energies which are by definition intermittent.
Because the abundance of solar energy in 2024 has contributed to lower prices in the middle of the day and sometimes caused “negative prices” during the hours when electricity is sold on the markets below zero due to a glut of supply versus demand.
They represent 4% of hours on average in the EU, compared to 2% in 2023, and occurred practically everywhere among the 27, underlines Ember.
For the think tank, these price differences could allow consumers to reduce their bills if we manage to shift demand towards periods of abundant solar production. Electricity suppliers could also store electricity produced during production peaks and distribute it when demand rises, such as at the end of the day.
The deployment of batteries has progressed significantly in recent years, with an installed capacity of 16 GW in 2023 compared to 8 GW in 2022, according to Ember. But these capacities are concentrated in a small number of countries: 70% of existing batteries were located in Germany and Italy at the end of 2023.
“We now need more flexibility to ensure that the energy system adapts to new realities: more storage and increased smart electrification in heating, transport and industries,” says Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe , the European Photovoltaic Association, cited by Ember.
“The competitiveness of the EU is intrinsically linked to the rapid deployment of clean energy and flexibility solutions,” adds Jacopo Tosoni, of the European Association for Energy Storage (EASE). “Renewable energies and storage are becoming the pillars of the energy transition,” he emphasizes.
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