Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

This report compiles and analyses the full-year 2020 electricity generation of every EU country, tracking Europe’s electricity transition. This is the fifth year in a row that Ember (formerly as Sandbag) has done this analysis in conjunction with Agora Energiewende.

Renewables rose to generate 38% of Europe’s electricity in 2020 (compared to 34.6% in 2019), for the first time overtaking fossil-fired generation, which fell to 37%. This is an important milestone in Europe’s Clean Energy Transition. At a country level, Germany and Spain (and separately the UK) also achieved this milestone for the first time. The transition from coal to clean is, however, still too slow for reaching 55% greenhouse gas reductions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.

Has coal consumption peaked? Who is turning away from coal?
In a previous article published in 2019, we explained why global coal consumption was on the rise. Recent announcements by several governments on their coal phase-out plans, the advanced closure of old power plants and the freezing of some projects under construction may indicate a reversal of the trend for coal in the coming years. Do these signs herald the end of coal in the world?
Using Enerdata’s databases and information sources, we decipher the major global coal trends in the short and medium term. This brief was prepared by Bruno Lapillonne, co-founder of Enerdata and Carine Sebi, Chair coordinator at Grenoble Ecole de Management.

The potential to use waste heat from large data centres is limited if computing is not located near where heat is needed. Start-ups are offering innovative decentralised computing solutions in or near homes, offices and other buildings
The aim: To bring together producers of waste heat and their customers
Changing world: “Edge” computing, where computers become more common in everyday objects, from refrigerators to self-driving cars, will boost the viability of ultra-distributed waste heat reuse solutions

EU is moving towards a climate neutrality goal in 2050 with heating of buildings posing a major challenge. This paper provides a deep understanding of the historical development, path dependency and current status of the EU-28 residential heat sectors to inform strategy and policy makers and to open up this black box. Data is combined for buildings, installed technologies, fuel consumption and energy supply for Member States from 1990 to 2015, to analyse the importance of large-scale infrastructures and supply chains.

Global warming emissions from the power sector fell by 12% last year, led by a steep decline in coal power generation, which was replaced half by natural gas and half by renewables, according to fresh data published on Wednesday (5 February).

The power sector’s CO2 emissions declined at record speed in 2019 – by 12% or 120 million tonnes, according to climate think tanks Agora Energiewende and Sandbag.

Hard coal and lignite-fired power generation fell in every EU country – and by 24% overall – according to fresh data on European power sector emissions, covering all EU member states, including the UK.

Everyone in the energy sector is talking about big – and intelligent – data. But it’s still early days and the benefits from all that potential are yet to register. The goal is greater energy efficiency; in consumption but also in planning future infrastructure and services that are tailored to local – not just regional …