CEE Bankwatch Network’s Post

🌞⚡ Solar Surpasses Coal: The EU’s Electricity Transition Gains Momentum in 2024 🌍 The 2025 European Electricity Review by Ember highlights the remarkable strides made by the EU in its electricity transition during 2024. Despite economic and political challenges, the region achieved significant progress toward a clean energy future. 🌱 Key Takeaways: 1️⃣ Solar overtakes coal: Solar generation grew 22%, becoming the fastest-growing energy source and overtaking coal for the first time. 2️⃣ Gas declines for the fifth year: Gas power generation fell again, contributing to a 20% reduction in gas consumption over five years. 3️⃣ €59 billion saved: Since 2019, wind and solar avoided €59 billion in fossil fuel imports, highlighting the economic benefits of renewables. 🔍 Find the complete document here: https://bit.ly/40pme2N   📰 For a compact overview, you can also check The Guardian's article on the topic: https://bit.ly/4hewSAD

Great news from global think tank Ember in their newly published European Electricity Review 2025: Solar overtakes coal generation in the EU for the first time in 2024 ☀️⚡ "Solar was the fastest growing EU power source in 2024, with generation 22% (+54 TWh) higher than 2023. This increase was due to a record amount of new capacity additions (66 GW), and despite slightly lower solar irradiance compared to 2023. Solar was therefore the single biggest driver of reduced fossil power in 2024. It provided 11% of EU electricity (304 TWh), overtaking coal (269 TWh) for the first year ever," states Ember in their review. Furthermore, Dr. Beatrice Petrovich, senior analyst at Ember says: "The EU is striding closer towards a clean energy future powered by homegrown wind and solar. This new energy system will reduce the bloc’s vulnerability to fossil price shocks, tackle the climate crisis, and deliver affordable energy for its households and companies. Timely policy action that sustains wind and solar growth, accelerates the deployment of clean flexibility, and promotes electrification, will help to secure the future of EU competitiveness." The review also highlights that rapidly deploying batteries and advancing electrification will be key to cost-effectively sustaining the growth of solar energy 🔋☀️ Read Ember's review here: https://lnkd.in/dbfRXcSR

Our friends in Europe continue to lead on the energy transition. According to research by Ember (and reported by Canary Media Inc.) solar power overtook coal generation on the continent for the first time in 2024. Gas generation fell for the fifth straight year. And renewable power now makes up 47% of the continent's power generation compared to 29% coming from fossil fuels. https://lnkd.in/ebJmqnHX

EU solar power overtook coal-fired electricity generation for the first time in 2024, Bloomberg has reported. Important, sure. But in a global context and our ambitions for net-zero? For the EU solar output increased 22% to 304 terawatt hours (TWh), while coal generation dropped 16% to 269TWh. Wind power saw smaller growth of 1.5% but still remained ahead of gas-fired generation for the second consecutive year they reported. For Europe it's significant, and demonstrates coal's accelerating decline as we transition towards lower carbon power generation, but if we zoom out and consider this on a global scale demand for coal continues to rise, driven predominantly by Chinese consumption. So the big question is can Europe’s progress inspire faster action elsewhere, or will rising coal demand in other regions offset these gains and leave us faltering? And importantly, what can be done? Bloomberg Article: https://lnkd.in/dfXx576p

The world’s second-largest economy added roughly 277 gigawatts of solar last year, surpassing the previous year’s record of 217 gigawatts, the National Energy Administration said in a statement on Tuesday. It also added nearly 80 gigawatts of wind, according to the statement. https://lnkd.in/gafVk6q6

In a first, wind and solar overtake fossil fuels in the EU in 1H 2024 Image: BASF Wind and solar generated more electricity than fossil fuels in the EU during the first six months of 2024 for the first time ever in a half-year period. New analysis from independent energy think tank Ember reveals that wind and solar grew to an all-time high of 30% of the EU’s electricity in the first half https://lnkd.in/gRwamr6q

Rising interest rates have hit renewable energy harder than fossil-fuel based sources of energy, and could also impact the viability of nascent energy technologies like low-carbon hydrogen, according to an analysis published in April by Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. A two percentage point increase in interest rates hikes the levelized cost of electricity from renewables by as much as 20%, with utility-scale solar experiencing some of the greatest impacts, according to Wood Mackenzie. The LCOE for a combined-cycle natural gas plant, by contrast, increases just 11%, in part because fossil fuel generators already paid higher rates before central banks began to hike interest. Higher interest rates could jeopardize the energy transition and impact the U.S. push for more domestic manufacturing, said Peter Martin, Wood Mackenzie’s head of economics and the lead author on the interest rates report. It remains uncertain whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will begin to cut decades-high interest rates this year.

Need some good news? 🤩 In case you missed it last week: Solar generation (11%) overtook coal (10%) for the first time in 2024, as wind (17%) generated more electricity than gas (16%) for the second year in a row.  https://lnkd.in/da86wkg5

China's solar&wind capacity additions in Jan-Apr are still ahead of the record levels of 2023. April was a slow month for new wind farm connections; solar steamed along at last year's rates (220 GW/year!). China Electricity Council, who have a good idea of the project pipeline, predicted at the start of the year that 170 GW solar and 90 GW wind would be added in 2024; so far solar looks to be ahead of that prediction and wind on track. https://lnkd.in/dMchzF7V

A new report reveals that 23 GW of wind and solar capacity is planned in the Western Balkans, 70% up from a year ago, although only 7 GW is scheduled to be operational by 2028. #solar #wind #westernbalkans