The UK’s growth in renewable generation this decade has outstripped nearly all other European countries, according to new research. EURACTIV’s media partner edie.net reports.
New renewables generation sharply increased in the EU last year, with wind, solar and biomass overtaking coal for the first time. This is in stark contrast to five years ago, when coal generation was more than twice that of those technologies.
Renewables overtook coal in supplying European electricity in 2017, according to a new analysis by @sandbagorguk @AgoraEW https://t.co/nHezqpJOot Wind, solar and biomass now provide over 20% of electricity generated in the #EU #ClimateAction pic.twitter.com/j5AXuJD8nY
— UN Climate Change (@UNFCCC) January 31, 2018
But research from Sandbag and Agora Energiewende shows that renewables progress has become “more uneven” across the continent, with the UK and Germany alone contributing to 56% of the growth past three years. Of the rise in renewable generation for EU28, the UK was responsible for 22% of the rise from 2014 to 2017.
Mixed picture
There was a big 19% increase in wind generation in Europe last year, but the bad news is that solar was responsible for just 14% of renewables growth in the past four years.
And while 2017 saw the UK reduce its electricity demand by around 2%, there was a 0.7% increase across the whole of Europe, marking a third year of consecutive rises.
How were EU countries doing on wind, solar and biomass in 2017 and before? Have a look in our new study we did with @SandbagUK. #EUpower https://t.co/XogwgpH4Zo pic.twitter.com/DLwMIGmu05
— Agora Energiewende (@AgoraEW) January 30, 2018
Sandbag coal analyst and report author Dave Jones said: “Our study gives a very mixed picture: EU renewables has been increasingly reliant on the success story of wind in the Germany, UK and Denmark, which has been inspiring. But other countries need to do more.
“Solar deployment is surprisingly low and needs to respond to the massive falls in costs. And with electricity consumption rising for the third year, countries need to reassess their efforts on energy efficiency.”
Britain increased its share of wind, solar and biomass from 8% in 2010 to 27% in 2017. This was only beaten by Denmark which rose by 42% to reach a remarkable 74% by the end of last year.
The report also highlights the speed with which the UK is phasing out coal – again in contrast to Germany. Since 2010, Britain has reduced its coal burn for electricity by 22% to 7%, while coal output in Germany only fell by 5% to 37% during the same period.
Western Europe is making strides in phasing out coal, the study notes, with Netherlands, Italy and Portugal all committing to phase-outs in 2017, but Eastern Europe is sticking to it.
Germany again No 1 in Europe… in lignite and hard #coal electricity generation. ~Half of european coal generation comes from Germany (242 TWh) and Poland (129 TWh).
Great figures in new study by @AgoraEW & @sandbagorguk https://t.co/cDXe1MefwH pic.twitter.com/hl04uxxYmu— Brigitte Knopf (@BrigitteKnopf) January 31, 2018
UK advances
Britain achieved its ‘greenest year ever’ in 2017 thanks to 13 new records across the clean energy sector. Major highlights in 2017 include the greenest summer ever, as well as the first ever working day without coal power generation since the Industrial Revolution. Last year also saw low-carbon sources reach a record-high share of the UK’s electricity mix and an all-time low cost of offshore wind.
Earlier this month, the UK Government lowered its projection for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during the fourth and fifth carbon budgets.
But there is still cause for concern at a domestic level. New figures released earlier this month showed that investment in clean energy plunged further in Britain than in any other country last year because of government policy changes.
Read the full report below and online here:
Agora_EU-report-2017_WEB