The energy that has powered the continent for several hundred years, driven its industry, fought its wars and kept its people warm, is on the way out, fast: Europe’s coal is in rapid decline.
Coal is by far the most polluting of fossil fuels and is a major factor in the build-up of climate change greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.
However, according to a recent report by two of Europe’s leading energy analyst groups, the use of coal for power generation among the 27 countries of the European Union fell by a record 24 per cent last year.
The report by Agora Energiewende, a German-based group, and Ember, an independent London climate think-tank focused on accelerating the global electricity transition, will provide a strong reading for European coal lobbyists.
Renewables are on the rise across most of Europe, while the use of coal is in sharp decline. Wind and solar power together accounted for 18% of the EU’s energy generation in 2019, while coal accounted for 15%. This is the first time that renewables have triumphed over coal in Europe’s energy generation mix.
“Europe is leading the world on rapidly replacing coal generation with wind and solar and, as a result, power sector CO2 emissions have never fallen so quickly”, says Dave Jones, an electricity specialist at Ember.
“Europe has become a test bed for replacing coal with wind and solar power, and the fast results should give reassurance to other countries that they can rapidly phase out coal too.”
Total phase-out soon
According to the report, greenhouse gas emissions from the EU energy sector have decreased by more than 30% since 2012, with a year-on-year decrease of 12% in 2019.
A number of European countries have already said good-bye to coal. Belgium closed its last coal-fired power plant in 2016. Austria and Sweden followed suit in April of this year.
The report highlights how many EU countries have significantly reduced the use of coal in recent years: most are planning to completely eliminate it as an energy source in the near future.
Eight years ago, more than 30% of the electricity generated in the United Kingdom came from coal-fired power plants. Only 2% of the power was derived from coal last year. In four years’ time , the United Kingdom plans to stop using it for energy generation.
Germany has traditionally been one of the largest coal users in the EU. In 2013, coal accounted for 45 per cent of the country’s electricity generation: that figure fell to 28 per cent last year.
Germany says that it will remove coal from its power mix by 2038, although government critics say that it is not nearly fast enough to meet EU-wide emission reduction targets.
There are a number of factors behind the decline in coal. Economics has played a very important role.
After the financial crash of 2008, industrial activity slowed down and Europe’s coal use declined.
The power sector has become more efficient: although industrial activity has increased in recent years – before the Covid-19 pandemic – the EU ‘s total electricity consumption was 4 per cent lower in 2019 than a decade earlier.
Decreased installation and operating costs for solar and wind power plants have resulted in renewable energy becoming increasingly competitive: the price of natural gas – a fossil fuel that is less polluting than coal – has also declined, while reforms to the European carbon trading scheme, which have resulted in higher charges being levied on polluters, have increased the cost of coal.
However, all this is not clean air and clear blue skies in Europe. Coal is still a major source of power in Poland, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. And while Germany has reduced its dependence on coal, it still burns large amounts of lignite or brown coal, the dirtiest form of fuel.
Pollution and climate change do not recognize borders. Many EU countries still rely on coal and have plans to expand coal-fired power plants.
China is helping Serbia expand its coal-fired power capacity. Kosovo, which has some of the largest reserves of lignite in the world, is also building more coal-fired power plants.
The World Bank says that Kosovo has some of the worst air pollution in Europe, with emissions from its lignite-fueled power stations causing many premature deaths each year.
