The EU reached a new record low in electricity from fossil fuels in the first half of 2023. (energy-charts.info)
The EU reached a new record low in electricity from fossil fuels in the first half of 2023. (energy-charts.info)
According to the data gathered on energy-charts.info, the first half of 2023 saw the lowest production of electricity by fossil fuels since 2015. With 387 TWh (31.7% of load) from conventional sources it surpassed the previous low for a first half year of 400.9 TWh (32.1%) in 2020 by nearly 14 TWh or 3.5%.
At the same time renewables provided for more power than ever with 519.3 TWh providing 42.6% of the load.
Other records for a first half year in 2023 (see the bottom of the energy-charts page):
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lowest nuclear power production
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lowest fossil peat production
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lowest load
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highest pumped hydro usage (consumption+production)
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highest offshore wind production (23.922 TWh)
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highest onshore wind production (195.399 TWh)
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highest solar power production (98.698 TWh)
This marks a notable shift towards green energy compared to the first half of 2022: renewables increased from 488.8 TWh in the first half of 2022 to 519.3 TWh in the first half this year, while fossil fuels decreased from 475.3 TWh to 387 TWh.
Also the electricity prices are becoming very intressting today at 14:00 CET prices drop to some insane levels. Germany, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have prices at -500€/MWh. Slovenia goes down to -1413€/MWh.
The more renewables, the less fossils and nuclear, the cheaper energy gets...
Which is a very bad news for renewables energy but a good news for the development of storage solutions.
German renewables have guranteed price floors, otherwise they would be turned off. However there are still 3GW of lignite plants running in Germany. Those will have lost about 2million€ in a single hour.
Do I see correctly that the prices are not only negative, but also this deep into the negative? Fascinating. Is that just during the peaks of solar generation?
The old lowest price was -90€/MWh, so this is a new record and highly unusal. Basicly it is a lot of new solar in the last couple years on a sunny day, at about peak solar, combined with strong winds, which mean there is also pretty close to peak wind and it is on a Sunday so demand is low. Negative prices happend before, but usually on weekends with peak solar and a decent wind. Normally peak wind happens during storms, which naturally means low solar.
Since the increase of renewables was by 30.5 TWh and the decrease of fossil fuels was by 88.3 TWh means that the EU also produced less electricity and thus needed less of it, correct?
Yes, that is correct. The first half of 2023 was a new record low in electricity consumption for first half years (since 2015). You can also see that by toggeling the "Load" category. Extreme values in the tracked time period: maximum load 1,347 TWh in 2018 and minimum load this year with 1,219 TWh. Compared to last years first half there was:
- a reduction of load by 79.7 TWh
- a reduction of nuclear output by 11.9 TWh
- a reduction of conventional output by 88.2 TWh
- an increase of renewable output by 30.5 TWh
Finally to make the sums match up, we can look at the import balance: in the first half of 2022 the EU net imported 5.771 TWh, this year it net exported 4.23 TWh.
let's shoot for
5070!You missunderstood the original post 31.7% are fossil fuels, so the other 68.3% are renewable and nuclear.
Yes, I'm sorry if I presented that confusingly. That 31.7% is new record low for a first half year, both in terms of fraction of overall load and in absolute terms. The rebound after Corona was really short-lived and hopefully we'll see that record beaten every year from now on. Let's shoot for 0 fossil fuels!
statistic adjusted 🫡