Report Says Wind, Solar Energy Growth in EU Underc
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Recent data has revealed that solar and wind energy growth in the European Union has begun undercutting fossil fuels. A report by think tank Ember found that energy generation from the two renewables has surged by 46% from 2019 to 2023 and eaten into one-fifth of the fossil fuels’ energy market, taking the EU a step closer to achieving its carbon-neutrality goals.
Aside from the plan to achieve net neutrality by 2050, the current European Commission also proposed generating 45% of the regional bloc’s energy from renewables by the end of the decade. Most climate experts agree that transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables is key to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions and arresting runaway climate change. Consequently, the European Union has taken several steps to encourage the development and deployment of renewables.
Prior iterations of the European Commission as well as the current regime have passed many policies to facilitate the climate-change fight. However, with many of these policies due for review over the next half decade, it may be harder to pass more robust climate-change policies in the future. Even so, current policies helped to increase wind-energy capacity by 31% to 219 gigawatts and doubled solar capacity to 257 GW by last year.
According to the Ember report, this is equivalent to installing more than 230,000 solar panels each day for four years. Cumulatively, current green-energy policies have resulted in fossil-fuel generation dropping by 22% over the last several years. Ember Europe program director Sarah Brown notes that the European Union now has more homegrown solar and wind energy than ever and is currently experiencing a “historic and permanent” shift from its decades-long reliance on fossil fuel-generated power.
Fossil fuels played a critical role in industrializing most of the EU’s best economies and are still responsible for powering a large portion of EU member states. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the global energy crisis and ultimately forced the country to rethink its energy supply chains. The Kremlin’s cutting natural-gas exports to the rest of Europe was the final nail that forced countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom to significantly rework their supply chains.
Thanks to the gains that wind and solar capacity have made in recent years, the total share of renewables in the European Union’s energy mix increased by 34% from 2019 to 2023 while the share of natural gas and fossil fuel in fossil fuel-fired energy fell from 39% to 32.5%.
Companies such as First Tellurium Corp. (CSE: FTEL) (OTCQB: FSTTF) are also working to ensure an abundant supply of the critical minerals, which are required by the green-energy industry so that manufacturers can produce the supplies and equipment to generate and distribute renewable energy.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to First Tellurium Corp. (CSE: FTEL) (OTCQB: FSTTF) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/FSTTF
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