Electricity industry association Eurelectric has released figures showing that 50 percent of electricity generation in the EU came from renewables for the first time in the first half of 2024. The association said Europe was decarbonising at an unprecedented pace, with 74 percent of power coming from “renewable and low-carbon energy sources,” which includes nuclear power, marking “a significant increase” compared to the 68 percent share in 2023, Eurelectric said, according to Clean Energy Wire.
“The pace of change is impressive. These figures document that the decarbonisation efforts of electricity companies are years ahead of any other sector,” said the secretary general of Eurelectric, Kristian Ruby. However, Eurelectric said data on electricity demand was less encouraging: Due to “industry relocating abroad, warmer temperatures, energy savings and slow economic growth.”
Power demand in the EU in the first half year 2023 decreased by 3.4 percent compared to same period in 2022 and has continued to remain low in the first half 2024, at 2.6 percent less than two years earlier, said Eurelectric. A lower demand for electricity should not suggest that the EU can neglect investments in the sector, Ruby stressed.
In Germany, meanwhile, renewables covered 58 percent of gross electricity consumption in the first six months of the year, according to preliminary figures by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW). In a press release, ZSW Managing Director Frithjof Staiß said the record figures showed that an “efficient, reliable, secure and greenhouse gas-neutral power supply” was achievable by 2035, adding that Germany and Europe should produce more of the required technologies at home. BDEW chair Kerstin Andreae also called for Germany to remove hurdles to the development of power storage and grid infrastructure.
Moreover, 65 percent of all electricity fed into the German grid (public net electricity generation) in the first six months of 2024 came from renewable energy sources, preliminary figures from the Fraunhofer Institute show.