Fossil fuels' share in EU power mix at lowest level since records began -report
Fossil fuels' share in EU power mix at lowest level since records began -report
Fossil fuels produced just 33% of the EU's power in the first half of this year, the lowest share on record based on data going back to 1990, researchers said on Wednesday.
If mass renewables (excl hydro for obvious reasons) is only gaining traction in the past 20 years and there is a solid goal to phase out fossil fuels and replace them with renewables, every year should be the fossil fuels' lowest share in the power mix right?
First of all weather changes and that can have a big impact in the EU as the share of wind and solar is high enough to overshadow that. That can also be true for hydro, if there is too little rainfall. Even nuclear was impacted by too low river waterlevels in France last year. Then you have economic growth or crisis. That can have a massive impact on electricity consumption. If you consume less you shut down the most expensive plants to run and that are fossil fuels due to fuel costs.
So it does not fall every year, but over a longer period of time it does go down.
So it does not fall every year, but over a longer period of time it does go down
A misleading claim since much of this is driven by deindustrialization. But the factories still exist, just in other countries:
https://www.iea.org/news/global-coal-demand-set-to-remain-at-record-levels-in-2023
Global fossil fuel consumption is still going to break records and will continue to do so.
Meanwhile, Belgium is phasing out nuclear in favor of gas burning plants
I'm no supporter of nuclear but that's a bad move
The problem is that Belgium finished all, but one reactor within a decade and they provide about half of Belgiums electricity production. So with them aging and becoming less reliable as all old infrastructure does, they need to be shut down. At the time the reactors had a planned lifetime of 40 years and when shut down they are 50 years old. Also only three of the five reactors will be shut down by 2025, the other two will run until 2035, when they hit 50 years of operation.
So basicly a lack of foresight of Belgian governments for a long time, to not work on proper alternatives.
This was a great opportunity to quote Douglas Adams! :)
"This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."