Brussels, Jan. 31 (BNA) Energy generation from European coal rose last year as countries sought to replace Russian gas, researchers said on Tuesday, but the increase was less than expected as renewable energy helped bridge the gap.
Reuters reported that Russia, Europe’s former largest gas supplier, has cut shipments to the European Union, pushing the 27-nation bloc into a crisis of energy shortages and rising electricity prices.
As a result, the share of coal power in electricity generation in the European Union will rise by 1.5 percentage points in 2022, making up 16% of annual generation, the Ember think tank said in a report.
This was the highest share of fuels in power generation in the EU since 2018, Ember said, although it was less than 20 percent from gas, 22 percent from wind and solar and 32 percent from hydroelectric and nuclear.
Direct coal generation in the European Union increased by 7%, or 28 TWh (TWh), in 2022, increasing CO2 emissions in the energy sector by nearly 4%.
A return to more polluting fossil fuels “could have been a lot worse,” Ember said. It said increased generation from wind and solar power, plus an overall decline in energy use in the European Union amid mild weather and with consumers struggling with higher prices, prevented a larger recovery for coal.
“It would take another (energy) crisis (in 2023) to reach higher coal generation than in 2022,” said Dave Jones, head of data insights at Ember.
Solar power generation in the European Union increased by a record 24%, or 39 TWh, last year – helping to bridge a supply gap exacerbated by French nuclear plants down for maintenance and climate-change-induced droughts that cut hydropower production.
The EU has said that any increase in coal use will be short-lived, and that countries should largely replace Russian gas with green energy use and energy savings.
Countries including Germany and the Netherlands are also expanding the infrastructure to import more non-Russian gas, raising fears among climate activists that this could stall decades of demand for fossil fuels.
As part of plans to accelerate Europe’s transition to clean energy, EU countries and lawmakers are negotiating a more ambitious renewable energy target for 2030, covering sectors including transport and industry, as well as electricity.
The European Union parliament and countries such as Germany, Denmark and Spain want a target of 45% for renewable energy, while Hungary and Romania are among those seeking 40% less. The European Union will get 22% of its total energy from renewables in 2021, according to the latest Eurostat data.
“Top-down politics is almost a lag behind what you see on the ground (with solar power generation), where citizens and companies go out and do it themselves,” Jones added.