Of the 24.5 GW of new energy capacity put into operation on the territory of the European Union in 2016, about 86% (21.1 GW) are produced by renewable sources: wind, solar, biomass, water. Thus, the previous record figure of 79%, set in 2014, was broken.
According to a report from WindEurope called "European Statistics 2016", a growing role in the energy production is given to wind farms, combining the masses of wind turbines. For the first time, wind accounted for more than half of all emerging energy capacity in Europe. This trend has allowed wind energy to become the second most used source of electricity in the EU, ahead of coal and still behind gas. In total, Europe currently generates 153.7 GW of energy with the help of wind, which is about 17% of the total energy capacity of the region.
Germany became the leader in the number of new wind turbines , and a number of other countries - France, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and Lithuania - set their new records for the number of wind turbines. However, the number of active countries in this direction is not sufficient. Germany alone, which already has 3 times more wind energy than any other EU country, installed 44% of last year's wind turbines in Europe.
As Giles Dickson, managing director of WindEurope, noted, “only 7 of the 28 countries in the European Union have clear policies and plans for [wind energy] volumes after 2020.” According to him, the current policy of the EU countries regarding renewable energy is less ambitious than it was 3 or 5 years ago. Even despite the positive examples of some individual countries, such as the UK, which at the end of last year announced plans to close all coal-fired power plants by 2025.
See also anekdotig:
- Newsletter: " Portugal did an experiment: only renewable energy for 4 days " (May 19, 2016)
- Newsletter: " Bill Gates, IT industry leaders and businessmen create Breakthrough Energy Coalition to advance clean energy " (December 11, 2015)
- Newsletter: " Georgy Ermolenko, HSE University: Renewable Energy in the World and in Russia " (December 3, 2015)
- Newsletter: " The Dutch produce clean energy from plants " (September 18, 2015)
- Newsletter: “ During a strong wind in Denmark, all the necessary electricity is produced by windmills ” (July 14, 2015)