A new study has found in the first half of 2024, renewables made up more than 50% of all power generation in Europe.
The latest figures from industry body Eurelectric’s electricity data platform ELDA also found nuclear provided a stable share of 24%, but demand for power remains low due to sluggish growth, deindustrialisation and mild weather. Stimulating demand for electricity will be paramount to ensure continued investments in clean generation.
The ELDA data shows 74% of electricity produced in the EU in the first half of 2024 came from renewable and low-carbon energy sources. This is a significant increase compared to the 68% share in 2023.
The main reasons behind this remarkable result were an unprecedented influx of renewables on the grid combined with the stabilisation of the nuclear fleet, added the industry body.
“The pace of change is impressive. These figures document that the decarbonisation efforts of electricity companies are years ahead of any other sector,” said Eurelectric secretary general Kristian Ruby.
While the numbers on the supply side are promising, the same cannot be said for electricity demand. In the first half of 2023 power demand in the EU decreased by 3.4% compared to same period in 2022 and has continued to remain low in 2024 – 2.6% lower than the same period of 2022.
This trend is mainly due to industry relocating abroad, warmer temperatures, energy savings and slow economic growth, said Eurelectric.
“Years of stagnation in electricity demand have now turned into a regular decline. Policymakers must urgently support the uptake of electricity to provide the necessary investment signals for clean generation,” added Ruby.
To achieve this, Eurelectric is calling on the new Commission to propose an Electrification Action Plan within the first 100 days of its mandate, with a 35% indicative target for 2030 and a clear electrification indicator to be introduced in the national energy and climate plans (NECPs) of EU countries to monitor and deliver progress on the ground. Inaction could result in missing the EU climate targets, curtailment of renewable production and slowing down investments in the leading sector of the energy transition.
Eurelectric said ELDA is the industry benchmark for reliable electricity data. Collecting over 16 million individual data points annually from a number of independent sources including ENTSO-E as well as EU official statistics, the data is processed by the group’s intelligence team and validated by industry experts.
Thus, the platform provides unmatched timeliness and accuracy for electricity data, it added.