Europe now uses more renewables than fossil fuels

unkel

For electricity generation. Figures for H1, 2020 for the whole of the EU27.

Quite remarkable, must have gone under the radar, this should have been on the national news in every country. I found this out from watching a US based YT channel. Here's the link I found from the source:

linky


Coal use down 32% which is remarkable too, as it is still very widespread in some EU countries

"In Ireland, 5% of the time in the first half of 2020 there were negative wholesale electricity prices."


Is that good or bad?

unkel

Both!

Bad because we have no use of excess renewables production at the moment. And this is only going to get worse until we find more storage.

Good because this can be excellent news for people who can take electricity at any time this happens. Like people with electricity storage in their homes. This has already happened in the UK with energy utility provider Octopus who let EV and power wall owners charge up not just for free at certain times, but the company actually pays the home owners to do so