Electricity production in the EU from wind and solar increased by 50 billion kWh since the Russian invasion
02/23/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has accelerated the EU's energy transition, a study finds. Meanwhile, the EU has saved more natural gas than it bargained for.
A study by think tank Ember Climate found that electricity production in the EU from wind and solar increased by 50 billion kWh since the Russian invasion, reaching 23 percent of total electricity generation. According to Ember's calculations, this saved 9 billion cubic meters of gas, which would have cost 12 billion euros.
In total, wind and solar power generation amounted to 546 billion kWh. That was 50 billion kWh, or 10 percent, more than in the 12 months before the invasion. Both capacity expansion and favorable weather contributed to this, it said. This had also made it possible to cope with difficult generation situations caused by the failure of nuclear and hydroelectric plants, it said. The development of prices for gas and coal in the past twelve months makes the phase-out of fossil fuels even more urgent, the authors of the study wrote.
Ember Climate is a British think tank that has been campaigning for the energy transition worldwide since 2008 and is mainly funded by environmental organizations.
According to the European statistics authority Eurostat, the EU reduced its gas consumption by 19.3 percent from August 2022 to January 2023, significantly exceeding its savings target of 15 percent. Energy ministers had agreed to reduce gas consumption by 15 percent from August 2022 to March 2023 compared with the average for this period in the previous five years.
The highest savings were achieved in Finland (-57 percent), Lithuania (-48 percent) and Sweden (-40 percent). Germany was close to the average at 19.5 percent, while twelve member states missed the savings target, in some cases significantly. On a monthly basis, consumption in the EU was always below the five-year average, with October and November showing the highest savings at 25 percent each.
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