THIS IS A HUGE ACHIEVEMENT: The EU now generates more electricity from wind and solar than from fossil fuels. Graph from Nat Bullard and data from Ember. - ThreadSky

janrosenow.bsky.social • 184 days ago

THIS IS A HUGE ACHIEVEMENT:

The EU now generates more electricity from wind and solar than from fossil fuels.

Graph from Nat Bullard and data from Ember.

Comments

mitycheese.bsky.social•184 days ago

This is great, but the drop in fossil fuels is larger than the rise in wind/solar. What's making up the difference?

rowenagold.bsky.social•184 days ago

Good question. Odds are one of the factors is the improvement in efficiency. ICE vehicles are 25% efficient as opposed to EV's being closer to 90%.

jayreeler.bsky.social•173 days ago

Energy efficiency plays a role, although the shift from ICE to EV is *increasing* electricity consumption. The only other energy source that is up from 2016 is bioenergy, and it's not much higher. Total electricity consumption decreased 7% from 2016 to 2023.

rowenagold.bsky.social•173 days ago

I take your point and isn't any "increase" in electricity consumption offset with an actual decrease in fossil fuel consumption.

As far as the 7% electricity consumption decrease is concerned that could be the effect of hybrid systems and some chosing to go off grid entirely.

jayreeler.bsky.social•173 days ago

Yes, absolutely. Just pointing out that impact is not tracked in this dataset, though, because it only tracks electricity generation sources. The EU's total CO2 emissions dropped about 17% between 2016 and 2023 according to the Global Carbon Project database, reflecting those EV efficiency gains.

malmal200.xyz•184 days ago

Nuclear and other forms of energy generation probably

nafnlaus.bsky.social•184 days ago

Fossil would now be even lower if (A) Germany hadn't retired its nuclear, and (B) so many countries hadn't put the irresponsible emphasis on Russian natural gas as a "clean fuel".

Getting there, though!

marcelocc.bsky.social•184 days ago

Welcome to Brazil´s side of energy generation.

winstonsmith2019.bsky.social•184 days ago

The start of the X Curve. We’ve been here before. Out with the old, in with the new.

brandtawitt.bsky.social•183 days ago

shivajihimself.bsky.social•184 days ago

That is good news

zottmann.dev•184 days ago

A linked source would be nice.

thryse.com•184 days ago

Don’t tell Trump, he’ll want to invade

tomwwhittington.bsky.social•184 days ago

Absolutely incredible. Now if only they could overbuild to the point that electricity comes down to American price levels

webhackan.de•184 days ago

We have more and more days of negative prices, so we're getting there.

levisonofyellow.bsky.social•183 days ago

Great. Now lets talk about Palestine.

jbreezy612.bsky.social•183 days ago

Renewables are now 30% of the energy mix in the US and rising

mrhappyonbsky.bsky.social•184 days ago

🇪🇺 EU love you ❤️🥰

trainsgenderfoamer.bsky.social•184 days ago

But their grid reliability isn't very good because certain countries (cough Germany cough) don't have enough nuclear

stockfttp.bsky.social•183 days ago

Tosh. Germany has one of the worlds most reliable grids. Indeed European nations dominate the top of the rankings (see SAIDI etc)

trainsgenderfoamer.bsky.social•183 days ago

Then how do you explain the fact nobody wants to be Electrically Linked?

stockfttp.bsky.social•183 days ago

The whole of Europe is highly electrically linked. And the capacity is growing inc in Germany.

doktorg.bsky.social•184 days ago

Russian own goal.

gibajaalberto.bsky.social•184 days ago

Hace poco aterrizando en Viena vi kilómetros y kilómetros de eólica y te juro que me puso la piel de gallina tipo: joder, aquí está, nuestro futuro, hélice a hélice