PARIS: According to a research issued Thursday, solar surpassed coal in the European Union’s 2024 electricity generation, and the proportion of renewable energy sources increased to over half of the bloc’s power industry.
According to the climate think group Ember’s European Electricity Review 2025, fossil fuel-fueled electricity fell to a “historic low” and gas generation fell for the fifth consecutive year.
The think tank claimed that “the European Green Deal has delivered a deep and rapid transformation of the EU power sector.”
For the first time in 2024, solar power surpassed coal as the EU’s fastest-growing energy source. After nuclear and gas, wind energy continued to be the second-largest power source in the EU.
Overall, the share of renewable energy has increased to 47% from 34% in 2019 due to robust growth in solar and wind. The percentage of fossil fuels has decreased from 39 to 29.
“The primary cause of the decline in fossil fuel generation is an increase in wind and solar power. According to the analysis, the EU would have had to import 92 billion cubic meters more natural gas and 55 million tonnes more hard coal at a cost of EUR59 billion if wind and solar power hadn’t been built since 2019.
Ember claims that these developments are common throughout Europe and that solar energy is advancing in every EU nation. The most polluting fossil fuel, coal, has now been abolished by more than half or has had its percentage in their energy mix drop to less than 5%.
According to Chris Rosslowe, the report’s principal author, “Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy.” Few anticipated that the EU’s energy transformation would reach its current state at the outset of the European Green Deal in 2019: wind and solar are driving gas into decline and coal to the periphery.
Storage of batteries
Rosslowe warned that there is still more work to be done. He declared, “We must step up our efforts, especially in the wind power sector.” He noted that in order to fully utilize renewable energy sources, which are by definition intermittent, Europe’s electrical grid will also need to expand its storage capacity.
Due to an excess of supply over demand, prices in the middle of the day were lowered in 2024 as a result of abundant solar energy, occasionally even leading to “negative or zero price hours.”
A battery that is situated next to a solar plant is an easily accessible alternative. According to the article, this enables solar power producers avoid selling for cheap rates in the middle of the day and provides them more control over the pricing they receive.
According to the think tank, while battery owners might profit from purchasing power when costs are low and reselling it when demand is high, users could lower their bills by relocating their usage to times of abundance (smart electrification).
According to Ember, installed capacity in the EU doubled to 16 GW in 2023 from 8 GW in 2022, demonstrating the considerable advancements in batteries in recent years. However, this capacity is concentrated in a limited number of nations: as of the end of 2023, 70% of the current batteries were in Germany and Italy.
“To maintain growth and ensure that consumers fully benefit from abundant solar, more storage and demand flexibility are required,” Ember stated. “Additions are expected to increase after a difficult few years for the wind power sector, but not by enough to meet EU ambitions.