Europe Made More Electricity from Solar Than Coal In 2024

Long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shared this report from the Guardian:
More electricity was made from sunshine than coal in the EU last year, a report has found, in what analysts called a 'milestone' for the clean energy transition. Solar panels generated 11% of the EU's electricity in 2024, while coal-burning power plants generated 10%, according to data from climate thinktank Ember...

Coal-burning in the EU power sector peaked in 2003 and has fallen by 68% since then. At the same time, clean sources of electricity have boomed. Wind and solar energy rose to 29% of EU electricity generation in 2024, while hydropower and nuclear energy continued to rebound from the 2022 lows...

The report found the share of coal fell in 16 of the 17 countries that still used it in 2024. It said the fuel has become 'marginal or absent' in most systems. Germany and Poland, the two countries that burn most of the EU's coal, were among those where there was a shift to cleaner sources of energy. The share of coal in Germany's electricity grid fell 17% year-on-year, while in Poland it dropped8%, the report found.

Fossil gas also fell for the fifth year in a row, declining in 14 of the 26 countries, according to the article, and now accounting for just 16% of the electricity mix.

'The findings come despite a small increase in electricity demand after two years of steep decline brought on by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.'

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