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Europe keeps setting clean-energy records
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Quartz


Quartz, July 14, 2018
Posted: August 13th, 2018
https://qz.com/1328344/renewable-energy-europe-keeps-setting...

This week, two of the biggest economies in Europe set new records for clean energy. The UKs electrical grid has not burned any coal for about 1,000 hours so far this year. Though its just a symbolic achievement, the pace at which the UK is reaching such figures shows the pace of the energy transition. In 2016 and 2017, the comparable figures for the full year stood at 210 hours and 624 hours, respectively. There are two reasons for the shift: a carbon tax on coal has made cleaner natural gas more attractive, and subsidies for solar and wind power have ensured wider deployment of new clean-energy technologies. Germanys case has been slightly different. Though it began pushing for renewable energy much earlier than the UK, its gains have been slower. The coal lobby in Germany is a lot stronger than in the UK. But as the costs of renewable energy have come down, change is finally showing. In 2018 so far, coal generated about 35.1% of the countrys electricity. In comparison, renewable sources, such as solar, wind, and biomass, generated about 36.5%. At the half-year mark, its the first time in Germanys history that renewables sources have generated more electricity than coal. Such records and falling renewable costs have made it easier for the EU to set more ambitious clean-energy goals. Last month, the blocs member nations agreed that each country must get 32% of all its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

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