Renewables Accounted for 90% of Europe’s New Power in 2016

Renewable energy accounted for 90% of new power added to Europe’s electrical grids in 2016, according to WindEurope, an association based in Brussels that promotes the use of wind power in Europe.

A total of 24.5 GW of new energy sources were built, and 21.1 GW were from solar, wind, hydro, and biomass, the association said, technology news website Futurism reported.

According to WindEurope, this is the first time that wind power’s capacity was higher than coal’s, allowing it to earn the distinction of being Europe’s second largest form of power capacity, behind just natural gas. Thanks to countries like Germany, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, and Lithuania, all of which increased their wind capacity in 2016, wind farms accounted for over half of the renewable capacity.

These increases included massive offshore projects, such as Gemini (a wind farm built off the coast of the Netherlands) and Germany’s 582 MW Gode Wind 1 and 2 projects.

These numbers may seem impressive, especially with Europe’s total wind power capacity adding up to 153.7 GW, but this figure is still very low relative to the continent’s total power capacity of 918.8 GW.

Caption:

A total of 24.5 GW of new energy sources were built in Europe last year.