In today’s European energy landscape – only renewables show growth

The strong dominance of fossil resources (share-wise) in energy consumption can make it easy to overlook the disruptive changes that are taking place in today’s energy landscape: for more than a decade now, total energy consumption has been going down in the European Union – at the cost of fossil fuels. Only renewable based energy consumption is growing.2015_sgu_EU Energy consumption BP Stats_2015JUN16.003Energy consumption from renewabe resources (solar, wind, geothermal, bioenery) shows a hyperbolic curve – flat from 1965 to the end of the 1980s, curving in the 1990s and going steep up in share in this century. In 2014 the combined hydro and other renewables energy consumption bypassed nuclear and has climbed to 75% of the coal based consumption level.

The graph below presents which resources fueled growth in a given year compared to the year before. Oil, gas, to a lesser extent coal, and in the 80s nuclear were the resources used for energy consumption growth – up to 2004. From that year on dominancy has been taken over by hydro and other renewables.

The COP21 conference in Paris is approaching and the EU 2030 energy and climate targets are set – as well as the low carbon economy vision for 2050.

It is clear which ‘colour’ will dominate Europe’s energy landscape in the decades that come.

2015_sgu_EU Energy consumption BP Stats_2015JUN16.004

Related

Current POME-based biofuels in EU fall within current production potential 

According to studio Gear Up’s numerical analysis, the current volume of POME-biofuels deployed in the EU are in the range of current production volumes of POME residues. We advise to keep a close look on the future volumes of POME-based biofuels, given the upper limits of production. Strengthening the information position of renewable fuels supply chains with more frequent auditing and historical data of POME-oil production are needed.

Read More

Mobility Monitor 2025

We developed for NOVE an annually recurring Mobility Monitor that provides insights on vehicle fleet volumes development and indicates how the liquid and gaseous fuel demand, as well as the deployment of electricity, in The Netherlands transport sector is expected to grow or decline over time.

Read More
Scroll to Top