Renewable energy thrives during COVID-19 lockdown in Europe

COVID-19 has highly affected electricity demand globally. When it comes to Europe, new data show that coal energy production plummets while renewable energy thrives.

The coronavirus spread has caused factories, businesses and facilities to shut down, highly impacting the power demand in Europe. In particular, during the first quarter of 2020, electricity demand has been reduced by 10% compared to 2019 data, a decline never observed since WWII.  

According to Wärtsilä Energy Transition Lab, an open-data test environment created to assess the impact of the pandemic in power generation, fossil fuel energy has been reduced by more than 25%. The findings are based on data from the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom.

The application provides data on power generation, demand and cost and can also be used to derive future estimates. “What we can see today is how our energy systems cope with much more renewable power-knowledge that will be invaluable to accelerate the energy transition. We are making this new platform freely available to support the energy industry to adapt and use the momentum this tragic crisis has created to deliver a better, cleaner energy system, faster,” Björn Ullbro, Vice President for Europe and Africa at Wärtsilä Energy Business, stated.

The decline in coal-based power generation has significantly deteriorated from March 10 to April 10, 2020. Currently, it makes up just 12% of the total energy production in the EU and in the UK. At the same time, the share of renewable energy in the market has increased to 43%, experiencing an 8% increase compared to 2019. "The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on European energy systems is extraordinary. We are seeing levels of renewable electricity that some people believed would cause systems to collapse, yet they haven’t – in fact, they are coping well. The question is, what does this mean for the future?,” Ullbro, said.

Data show an unexpected transition in Europe's energy sources, one that was supposed to occur about 10 years later. “In this way, the recent drop in electricity demand fast-forwarded some power systems 10 years into the future, suddenly giving them levels of wind and solar power they wouldn’t have had otherwise without another decade of investment in renewables,” Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, stated.

According to IHS Markit, if the pandemic outburst is mitigated and it does not highly impact the following quarters of 2020, the total power demand will be "moderately affected".