Climate neutrality by 2050 means renewables growth will further accelerate

Renewables overtook fossil fuels to become the EU’s main source of electricity for the first time in 2020

This report compiles and analyses the full-year 2020 electricity generation of every EU country, tracking Europe’s electricity transition. This is the fifth year in a row that Ember (formally as Sandbag) has done this analysis in conjunction with Agora Energiewende. 

Renewables rose to generate 38% of Europe’s electricity in 2020 (compared to 34.6% in 2019), for the first time overtaking fossil-fired generation, which fell to 37%. 

This is an important milestone in Europe’s clean energy transition. At a country level, Germany and Spain (and separately the UK) also achieved this milestone for the first time. The transition from coal to clean is, however, still too slow for reaching 55% greenhouse gas reductions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.  

While Covid-19 had an impact in all countries, 

its impact on the overall trend from fossil fuels to renewables was quite limited. The rise in renewables was reassuringly robust despite the pandemic, and the fall in fossil-fired electricity could have been even more dramatic, had it not been for such a bounce-back in electricity demand and the worst year on record for nuclear generation.