Continued succes for renewables

Wind power in the EU was 16 per cent up from 2012 and solar power was 17 per cent up. Photo: Argonne National Laboratory CC BY-NC-SA

Denmark got 41 per cent of its power from the wind in the first six months of 2014.  Renewables are advancing all over Europe.

Wind and solar are now big in absolute numbers, and of major importance to some countries. 

Denmark got 41 per cent of its electricity from wind  in the first six months of 2014, and another two per cent from solar. For shorter periods wind alone can supply more than 100 per cent of Denmark’s needs; the surplus is exported. Portugal  got more than 25 per cent of its power from the wind, and Spain  21 per cent power from the wind (and 6 per cent from solar) in the first eight months of 2014.

Integration obviously works, in practice.

Portugal and Spain have some hydro that can balance the variability of wind and solar, but they do not have very much transmission capacity to third countries. Denmark has no hydro but can use export and import to balance demand.

Most countries can do either, well before issues of storage or demand-side management or new backup thermal power need to be addressed. 

Germany, the world leader in photovoltaic solar energy, with 30 TWh in 2013, has also shown that it is easier to integrate both solar and wind power than either one of them. For the first seven months of 2014 a graph shows that the monthly total of wind and solar is almost constant (figure). 

Wind power produced more than seven per cent of EU electricity  in 2013, totalling 237 TWh, equivalent to the output of 34 large nuclear reactors or an even larger number of coal power plants. Wind power in the EU was 16 per cent up from 2012. Solar produced 83 TWh, 17 per cent up. 

The share of wind and solar, and their growth, varies widely between countries for no very good reason. In 2013, Denmark got 33 per cent of its power from the wind, Sweden 7 per cent but Finland only 0.9 per cent. It is hardly likely that this can be explained by different wind strengths.

Spain, the top wind power nation in Europe, has almost four times as much wind power as France. Many ex-communist countries have very little wind power, for example Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and the Baltic states (while Russia has none at all).  Poland and Romania are now picking up, however.

The differences, whatever their cause, show that there is room for much more. Costs are being cut; the Danish government has found that (onshore) wind power is the cheapest option for new power. A recent US government study also shows that wind is cheaper than coal or nuclear. (Gas is still cheaper in the US, but not in Europe.)

Ten years ago the conventional wisdom was that renewables and efficiency were nice ideas, but the real way to cut CO2 emissions was coal with carbon capture, CCS, and nuclear power.

Now we know otherwise. CCS has got nowhere so far. Nuclear is declining in the EU. Its output fell 14 per cent between 2003 and 2013, from 999 to 878 TWh. Half of it is in France. 

Meanwhile wind grew from 44 to 237 TWh, solar from 0.4 to 83 TWh and “other renewables”, excluding hydro, mainly biomass from 103 to 489 TWh.

As for efficiency, it is a fact that EU electricity consumption peaked in 2007 and has been dropping since then.  Consumption of oil, gas and coal is also dropping. Energy demand is effectively de-linked from GDP.

All is not well. Some renewable subsidies have been poorly designed, with busts following booms. Retroactive legislation in Spain and Italy, for example, has scared off investors. Some governments are more interested in protecting the existing power companies than in the environment and climate. 

But if the idea was to spread renewable tech from Europe to the world, it has worked.

China is now the world leader in wind and in photovoltaics, and many other countries are following suit.  

Fredrik Lundberg

Figure: German production of solar and wind electricty in the first eight months of 2014.

Air pollution still harms ecosystems

While acidification has been greatly reduced since its peak in 1980, emissions of nitrogen-containing air pollutants continue to damage more than half of sensitive ecosystems.

Editorial: Protect people and nature from air pollution

Since their peak around thirty years ago, emissions of air pollutants in Europe have come down significantly. Tougher emission standards for industry and road vehicles have resulted in less polluting power plants and cars.

Continued succes for renewables

Denmark got 41 per cent of its power from the wind in the first six months of 2014.  Renewables are advancing all over Europe.

Saving Turkey from coal

Turkey should stop the construction of new coal- and lignite-fired power stations and start phasing out the existing ones, says Greenpeace Mediterranean.

A fair share of climate responsibility

Annex 1 countries need to have negative emissions of 441 GtCO2 by 2050, according to a new equity proposal from several Latin American countries. 

Lignite power provides bargain-priced pollution

Combustion of lignite is one of the environmentally worst ways to generate energy. Even so, there is a continued increase in many parts of Europe.

Proposal for coal phase-out in Germany

BUND, a German environmental organisation, suggests a legally binding law to close all coal power stations by 2030.

Emissions are falling – but not enough

While emissions of acidifying sulphur pollutants in the EU have come down by 84 per cent since 1990, those of nitrogen compounds have fallen only by 41 per cent.

UK brought to court on bad air quality

New figures from the UK government show air quality in some of the country’s biggest cities will not meet European Union pollution limits until after 2030, twenty years after the original deadline.

Sustainable food choices

Excluding meat from our diet is not enough on its own to benefit the climate. Eating a lot of cheese or simply eating a lot of everything also leads to high greenhouse gas emissions.

New figures on global ship emissions

In 2012 worldwide shipping consumed some 300 million tonnes of fuel oil, resulting in emissions of 949 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Unless concerted action is taken, these emissions are expected to grow by up to five times by 2050.

US to cut CO2 from existing power plants

By 2030, the CPP proposal should reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector by 30 per cent nationwide, compared to 2005 levels, and provide up to US$93 billion in climate and public health benefits

Carbon dioxide concentration surges

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased last year at the fastest rate for nearly 30 years, according to the latest data from the WMO.

EU’s Dirty thirty

The thirty most CO2-polluting power plants in Europe also cause 20 per cent of the health costs of the sector.

High diesel NOx emissions prevail

A study by Dutch consultancy TNO has found that in spite of facing a tighter NOx emissions limit of 80 mg/km, diesel-driven Euro 6 vehicles emitted around 500 mg/km in real-world driving circumstances, which means they are approximately equal to Euro 4 and Euro 5 vehicles.

Cracks found close to Norwegian CCS operation

An EU-funded project called ECO2 has investigated the influence of CO2 seeping from the Norweigan CCS project by the Sleipner gas field in the North Sea.

Norway invests in Dutch CCS

The Norwegian government cancelled its national CCS project in Mongstad in 2013 because of spiralling cost estimates for setting up a full-scale CCS plant. Instead, it will invest 14 million euro in a CCS demonstration project in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Vattenfall to co-operate on Canadian CCS

Vattenfall has stopped its CCS research in Europe, including Schwarze Pumpe CCS. The company has instead taken some first steps to cooperate with SASK Power in Canada and its Boundary Dam Power Station CCS project. 

Beijing shuts down big coal-fired power plant

Beijing has closed the first of four large coal-fired power plants set to be decommissioned as part of the city’s efforts to cut smog-forming air pollution. Beijing’s three remaining coal-fired power plants are all to be closed by the end of 2016.

The environment is important to Europeans

Despite the economic crisis, Europeans’ concern about the environment has not diminished. In an overwhelming consensus, 95 per cent of the 28,000 interviewed citizens said that protecting the environment is important to them personally and many think more can be done.

Shipping sulphur enforcement alliance grows

Nine more shipping companies have joined Maersk and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) by signing up to the Trident Alliance, an industry-led initiative to ensure enforcement of the stricter ship sulphur regulations, which was formally launched on July 7. 

Environmental classification of ships

A new report for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency provides an overview of the existing mechanisms for classifying ships with respect to their environmental and climate performance.

Large cruise ships banned from Venice

The Italian government is banning all cruise ships exceeding 96,000 tonnes from Venice’s historic centre and the Giudecca Canal from 2015, and is restricting visits by smaller ships of no more than 40,000 tonnes. 

Italy introduces ship emissions control rule

Stricter maritime sulphur rules regulating the Adriatic and Ionian seas are due to come into effect on 1 January 2018. The new rule would prohibit a sulphur content in bunker fuel of more than 0.10 per cent in both seas, according to an Italian government statement. 

New ozone standard assessment

On 31 August 2014 the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards released the final version of the policy assessment for the review of the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).

Electric vehicle sales surge

Sales of electric vehicles in Europe have doubled every year since 2010, and provisional figures for 2013 indicate that almost 50,000 plug-in vehicles were sold, i.e. around 0.4 per cent of all car sales in the EU.

Bulgaria and Latvia in need of air quality action

Bulgaria and Latvia have to improve protection for citizens from particulate matter (PM10) pollution. Citizens in all six zones and agglomerations in Bulgaria (AG Sofia, AG Plovdiv, AG Varna, North, South-West and South-East) have been exposed to excessive levels of PM10 since at least 2007.

Largest climate rally in history

On 21 September, two days before the big UN General Secretary’s climate summit, more than 310,000 people participated in the People’s Climate March in New York City.

Alternative Nobel prize for 350.org founder

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org will be one of the recipients of this year’s Right Livelihood Awards, often called the “Alternative Nobel prize”.

Climate-smart agriculture – an issue of concern

On 23 September, at the Climate Summit, the UN launched a Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture.  More than 20 governments, and 30 organisations and private companies have already announced that they will join.