Wind power to become vital in Europe's renewable future, research suggests
The importance of wind power in electricity generation for Europe's renewable future as the world attempts to recover from the pandemic has been highlighted in the latest power market report by EnAppSys.
Wind power contributed to 15% - roughly 429 TWh - of total electricity generation across Europe, marking a 4% rise from 2019 marking record levels for wind power's market share on the European grid.
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Total power generation in Europe saw a 3% fall from 2019 owing to the impact of the pandemic and lockdowns on demand levels, which the data suggests was noticable.
Nuclear generation contributed 25% of total levels, with gas being responsible for 19% of energy generation and coal/lignite representing a 14% market share.
Germany has maintained its position as the highest producer of wind energy since 2015, with Spain, the UK, France and Sweden also relying on wind energy to generate significant amounts of electricity in 2020.
Hydroelectric power remains the largest individual component of renewable generation, contributing a total of 477 TWh while a good summer saw solar farms shoot to record new levels, contributing 127 TWh of total generation.
Nuclear energy clocked in with 688 TWh of generation, marking the single biggest contributor to energy generation in Europe.
Jean-Paul Harreman, director of EnAppSys BV, noted that amid the global drive to move to cleaner electricity sources, many European countries saw wind farms as an increasingly vital component of the overall power mix.
He said: "This trend was seen very starkly in the 2020 data and is likely to become more pronounced in the next few years.
“All segments of the renewable sector except waste saw increases in generation from 2019 levels, with solar and hydro seeing increases of 12% in output."
Prior to 2019, hydro and coal/lignite each contributed greater shares of the generation mix than gas-fired generation. However, gas has grown consistently in recent years and the output from gas-fired plants in 2020 was almost double the figure recorded in 2015.
He added: “Whilst the 2020 generation mix was broadly in line with previous years, the impact of lockdowns on demand levels was noticeable, particularly during Q2 at the height of the first lockdowns when reductions in excess of 10% were seen.
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"There have been variations in demand shapes throughout the pandemic since March, partly due to the different strategies adopted by countries to deal with COVID-19. In February, Germany and France had similar shapes and levels, while in Q2 and Q3, Germany had significantly higher peaks and lower troughs than France relative to their averages. Moving into Q4, demand in Germany fell more steeply than that in France as the German lockdown increased in severity.
“The Italian demand shape saw a large initial dip in February, as steps were first taken to try to control the coronavirus. Since then, it picked up over the summer, reduced slightly in Q3 and remained relatively stable in Q4.”
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