Are renewables reliable? Almost 19 percent of the energy in the EU currently comes from renewable sources, including solar, wind, hydropower and biomass. The share of renewables in Europe’s energy mix is set to grow to 32% by 2030 as the bloc transitions away from fossil fuels. Nevertheless, some politicians worry that renewables often depend on variable energy sources; what happens if the wind stops blowing or the sun stops shining?
What do our readers think? We had a comment come in from Alina, who asks: “How do we know if renewables will [supply] 100% [of Europe’s] energy, though?”
To get a response, we spoke to Erkki Maillard, Senior Vice-President for European and International Affairs at the Électricité de France (EDF) Group, a French electric utility company and one of the largest producers of electricity in the world. What would he say?
Can renewable energy power the whole of Europe? Can the EU become “climate neutral” by 2050, with 100% of its energy supplied by renewables? Let us know your thoughts and comments in the form below and we’ll take them to policymakers and experts for their reactions!
16 comments Post a commentcomment
It is definitely realistic.
This is not a political question but a technical question.
What do engineers say ?
Ofcourse it is a political question, it will be politicians who decide if it gets financed or not, the engineers only get to show the technology. Solar, wind, water power, geo thermal, gas from sewage and other organic material, ofcourse it ca be done, but it has to be done on a massive scale. Every new house should have to have solar panels on the roof and enough battery power storage.
Yes
How can sending what is left of the industry jobs from EU to lands with lower environment standards reduce the worldwide carbon emission? That is not how air diffusion works. Climate action can only be taken globally.
Reliable, durable, efficient and plentiful batteries would be crucial to this, but new battery technology developments may make this possible. The better battery technology being pursued because of the electric car race could also be applied to efficiently store renewable power. Until then, though, I think we will still need to complement with nuclear power.
Maybe it will change our time perception..
Yes, the technology is there
It could if you turned off half your devices.
See the documentary of Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs, and you will have the answer.
STOP make us as fools
The planet of Humans is the name of the documentary. Find it on YouTube
Nuclear is dangerous. The EU should take that out of the mix. I think a wise action would be for each country to take advantage of their natural renewable energy sources and store the excess in batteries to sell to countries that lack their own renewable energy sources or have a high energy requirement. There are so many desserts and hot sunny places. Very windy places etc. Africa has vast amounts of land and a sunny hot climate. They could pull themselves out of poverty by selling solar energy in recyclable batteries.
I think that in Western and Northern Europe as early as 2040, but in Central and Eastern Europe maybe up to 2060, and there, unfortunately, the biggest obstacle is Poland
People and even businessmen copy each others. So I simply guess that more renewable energy plans will work in EU and more others will grow up! Let’s go! Renewable energy is even “indipendence” from outside. And stop to wars for petrol. Yes, let’s go. :)
Not in this state. We still don’t have solution for energy storage. Nuclear is only and the best way to go.
What is the use of EU achieving 100% renewable when climate and pollution can transcend the imagine boundary of countries? A global issue requires global efforts to accomplish.