Gregory's ServerTHIS 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.
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29 comments
 @borisschapira @janrosenow Do we? The sum in 2018 is roughly 1600 TWh, now it's 1474 TWh. @sesivany @borisschapira @janrosenow The graph in the initial post is for _electricity_ consumption, the post above considers _energy_ consumption. Are we _substituting_ renewables to fossil or _adding_ new (electric renewable) sources? @sesivany @borisschapira @janrosenow The goal should not be not reduce the total amount of electrical energy, but replace overall diesel/petrol/gas for transport/heat/industry with something that uses electricity. @sesivany @borisschapira @janrosenow I would like something like https://mastodon.energy/@janrosenow/113074610160041625 where the total amount of energy (in Joule) consumed in Europe is illustrated. Maybe the size of boxes should better illustrate the amount of energy fossil represent. @aslakr @borisschapira @janrosenow Even that wouldn't give you full picture. You'd also have to take deindustrialization into account. If someone closes a factory in Europe and moves it to e.g. China, it's a net energy saving for Europe, but nothing positive for the climate in total.  @aslakr @sesivany @borisschapira @janrosenow Agreed, but the long term solution to the total situation is to reduce emissions to near zero, which is going to require most industries to reduce their energy and other resource use by at least 50%. Not just replace the energy source. @aka_quant_noir @sesivany @borisschapira @janrosenow If the industri are going to reduce their energy consumption and emissions, they would need to electrify. To make that possible, there need to be produced a lott more electrical energy. @borisschapira @janrosenow the graph isn’t percentage, it’s terrawatt. Fossils are going down pretty quickly, never quickly enough, but ya know, progress! @borisschapira @janrosenow am i reading the chart wrong or does fossil fuel consumption not decrease by precisely the amount shown on the graph? Electricity generation in Europe has been rather constant since 2007 at around about 4000 tWh a year. It actually did shrink somewhat in the last few years. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1260627/europe-electricity-generation/ @janrosenow that graph represents an industrial production recession you absolute mouth breather
@janrosenow that only accounts for electricity generation. Unfortunately there's a lot more fossil fuels being consumed in other areas, besides electricity generation. @janrosenow Now lets increase the CO2 emmission price so much that the value of fossil in the ground becomes negative.  @janrosenow Don't show that chart to right wingers. They'll cut funding and whatnot, just so that everybody blows out 8 times the CO2 with petrol cars and wasteful gas heating. We are surrounded by stupid. @janrosenow that is good news but is the question of quantity is enough to address the energy problem ?. I mean how much more wind power is necessary to ensure that we can get ride of fossil based energy for good. I wonder if the data exists? @zem @janrosenow As a pro solar pro wind guy there is no amount of wind/solar power that will eliminate the need for steady power generation such as nuclear, gas, or coal in northern Europe, because the former sources are variable and out of our control @daveliepmann @zem @janrosenow That’s incorrect. Baseline electricity generation isn’t flexible enough to be switched off and on again quickly. What happens already, is that when there’s an oversupply, renewable energy is cut and coal/nuclear keeps running. That’s why there were so many investments in gas, before Putin invaded Ukraine. We need more energy storage, not baseline power. @ArcaneAlchemist @zem @janrosenow We don’t currently have the technology to store enough energy, by far. The current solution in Germany is building more gas power plants. Personally I’d prefer nuclear between those choices.  @janrosenow The more renewables generated it should hopefully become cheaper. Making a compelling business incentive for more companies to shift to renewables. Creating and accelerating a virtuous cycle. @janrosenow We can do better. What if we use the grid differently? What if we dedicate renewables via real time synchronized loads? What if these sync’d loads reduce carbon more than simply dumping power against nat gas generation? @janrosenow is nuclear included in fossil fuels? Or just not accounted for on the chart? @janrosenow So if we reduce our energy consumption, we stand a chance to actually be fossil free...  @janrosenow Thanks, #putin. @janrosenow #Alt4You Graph of power generation in the EU from 2016 to 2024. The black line trending slowly downward represents fossil fuel sources, from approximately 1150 to 728 terawatt-hours. The green line trending upward more quickly represents wind and solar sources, moving from approximately 350 to 746 terawatt-hours. In 2016 green is just over one quarter of fossil, but in late 2024 green overtakes fossil. Source is Ember. |
@janrosenow This is a great news but relative measurements tend to hide the fact that fossil energy consumption does not reduce that fast: we just now consume MORE energy.