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In Europe, fossil fuels lose out

Fossil fuels decline. Renewables — particularly solar — are on the increase.

SL Staff B

• 2 min read
A tired-looking dinosaur carries a red jerry can past a large bank of solar panels.
Eventually, it'll run out of gas.
European renewables hit a record high in the third quarter of 2024 (up to 47% from 43% a year ago) at the same time as fossil fuel use reached an all-time low (down to 28% from 32% a year ago).1

Every quarter, the European Commission analyzes the European energy market.

Their latest report documents the rapid growth of renewables in Europe. In particular, rooftop solar is growing at the same time as fossil fuel use declines and electricity prices continue to go down.

A big bonus: European liquid natural gas imports declined significantly. In the third quarter of 2024, Europe had at least partially recovered from the shocks to its gas market caused by the invasion of Ukraine. This recovery did not entirely depend on replacing the gas stocks with other fossil fuels or gas from elsewhere.

Here's the current energy market picture in Europe:

Pie chart. Nuclear: 25%. Fossil fuel: 28%. Renewables: 47%.
Fossil fuels only provided 28% of European Energy in Q3 2024. (Numbers are rounded, so may not add up to 100%.)
Electric car lovers will be happy to hear that electricity demand in Europe went up only 2% over the year, even though 20% of all new car sales were electric.

About Hope

If you look at the top of this web page, you'll notice "HOPE", a menu item that takes you to a series of short articles about victories in the climate fight. This is one of those articles.

People don't have a lot of time. They are inundated with negative news about the environment. While these negative news stories can communicate the seriousness of the situation, they can also convince people to believe that things are hopeless ... and they are not. So each little, digestible bit provides a peek into one tiny little thing that has gone right.

Don't think for a minute, though, that any of these issues are simple. Usually, a whole world of physics, chemistry, policy, and actions undergirds each of these stories. We encourage you to look more deeply, to investigate the references at the end of each article, to take advantage of each little positive window into a bigger, more complex situation.

See below for some reading suggestions.

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Reading

  1. “Market Analysis - European Commission.” Accessed January 27, 2025. https://energy.ec.europa.eu/data-and-analysis/market-analysis_en.

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