EU notches up new record daily renewables share of 55% in May

The European Union has notched up an impressive new renewable energy record, with high shares of wind and solar as well as hydro and biomass across the vast majority of its member states combining to deliver an average of 55% renewables over the course of one day last month.

A new milestone of 54 per cent was recorded on May 11, and was marked in a webinar at the end of last month by Wärtsilä as part of its Energy Transition Lab – an open-data test environment to analyse the impact of the pandemic on the energy industry.

The record was matched on June 6, and then beaten on May 24, when the share rose to 55 per cent. There have been 10 days of more than 52 per cent renewable energy capacity in the last two months.

Wärtsilä said that while the load remained relatively low in Europe during May due to ongoing Coronavirus restrictions, the sun kept shining and the wind kept blowing, taking the share of renewables higher than ever before.

“We are currently experiencing a situation we did not expect to see for another five to 10 years,” Wärtsilä said.

“On 11 May, a historical record for the European electricity system was made. While coal and nuclear generation was down, the share of renewable energy was 54%.”

As you can see in the charts put together by Matti Rautkivi (above and below), the director of business development at Wärtsilä Energy Business, the vast majority of Europe is either dark green (above 50% renewables production on that day) or light green (between 30-40%).

“This means that a significant share of renewable produced not only in one country or two countries, but throughout Europe,” Rautkivi told the webinar.

“So it’s not only that Germany is now generating a lot of renewables and that’s impacting the European level numbers, but it’s actually across Europe that we see the transition really taking place right now.”

Germany was still a big contributor, however, producing an average of 70% across the day, thanks largely to a big share of wind generation – and even despite a relatively low level of solar in Germany on that day.

For the whole of the EU, Rautkivi noted that at the peak time of generation, in the middle of the day, a renewable energy share of 58 per cent was recorded – an indication that the EU might break through the 60% renewables mark in the near future.

“When the load is down and we have a good level of renewable energy we see these kinds of record levels of renewables,” he said.

“I really hope that we’re going to reach more than 60% in the near future.”

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