NewEnergyFocus summarize an EU press release.

Renewables make up 62% of new EU electricity in 2009

Tuesday 06 July 2010

The European Commission has published a report showing wind energy contributed the largest share of new electricity generation capacity in the EU in 2009

Renewable energy sources accounted for 62% of new electricity generation capacity installed in the EU27 in 2009, a 5% rise on 2008 levels, according to a report published by the European Commission.

The findings, compiled by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and published yesterday (July 5), also show that for the second year running, wind energy contributed the largest share of the new capacity.

And, in absolute terms, renewables produced 19.9% of Europe's electricity consumption in 2009, with hydropower holding the largest share (11.6%), followed by wind (4.2%), claims the latest ‘Renewable Energy Snapshots' report.

Some interesting facts from the press release is here.

With regards to the new capacity constructed that same year (27.5 GW), among the renewable sources, 37.1% was wind power, 21% photovoltaics (PV), 2.1% biomass, 1.4% hydro and 0.4% concentrated solar power, whereas the rest were gas fired power stations (24%), coal fired power stations (8.7%), oil (2.1%), waste incineration (1.6%) and nuclear (1.6%) (see figure1).

Note the gas fired (24%) vs. Wind powered (37.1%) produced 40% more power 28 TWh vs. 20 TWh.

As not all installed technologies operate continuously 24 hours a day, figure 2 shows the expected yearly energy output (TWh) from the new capacity. The new gas-fired electricity plants will deliver yearly 28 TWh, followed by wind and PV with 20 TWh and 5.6 TWh, respectively.