Alternative energy in Europe has set several records over the past couple of weeks

Many countries have long proclaimed a policy of changing the energy infrastructure. Instead of the usual thermal power plants and nuclear power plants, priority is given to "green" energy, which includes the energy of the sun, wind, water, the bowels of the planet, biogas, etc. In recent years, quite often hear about the records in this area. Some countries are completely switching to alternative energy sources, in other regions, the production of "green" energy exceeds the production of traditional energy.



There are especially many records in Europe due to the large number of wind and solar power stations. Especially significant are the successes of Germany, where the same energy of the Sun and wind accounts for about 80% of the total electricity production. Over the past couple of weeks, several other countries have distinguished themselves together with Germany. This is largely due to specific weather conditions - the lack of cloud cover in some regions of Europe with strong winds. And it gave good results for energy. For example, UK officials reported that renewable sources for the first time gave more electricity than thermal power plants running on coal and gas.



Last Wednesday, the total amount of electricity generated by wind, solar and hydroelectric power plants amounted to about half of the total energy produced in the country. If we add the NPP here, then we can say that last week energy sources with low carbon production gave the region 72.1% of the total electricity generated during this period. True, to talk about nuclear power plants, as an alternative source of energy is not necessary.



In many European countries, the whole week was sunny and windy, which made it possible to obtain a large amount of "green" energy, especially in the northern part of the region. Officials in the UK said the following: “For the first time, wind, nuclear and solar power plants generated more energy than heat.” In the United Kingdom last Tuesday, wind farms generated about 10% of the total electricity. This, first of all, is about coastal wind farms.



The consequence of the large amount of green energy produced was the reduction in the cost of electricity. At the same UK they became negative for a period of 5 hours . This is not the first such case, but so far the reduction in the cost of electricity below zero is an event that is spoken and written by many. “Negative prices are an infrequent phenomenon,” says Joël Meggelaars, a WindEurope employee. "This means a large volume of supply and low demand."



In Denmark, this week produced especially a lot of electricity. In this country, for the first time in history, several nights were recorded, when only wind energy was generated by 37%, which is required by the state. According to experts, this is a lot. But there are also other sources. Only coastal wind farms, which are becoming more common, now provide about 2% of the amount of energy needed by Europe.



It should be noted that the production of energy in a larger volume than the country requires is not always bad. This usually means being able to sell the surplus to neighbors. The same Denmark during the re-production of electricity sold excess energy to the Netherlands, Germany and Norway.



Anyway, alternative sources of energy are becoming more and more, and this means a gradual cheapening of "green" energy. Now the price of energy generated using renewable sources is 23% lower than in 2015. Last year, by the way, about 161 GW of electricity from alternative sources were obtained worldwide.







The UK is currently the leading producer of energy through wind power plants. This is understandable, because there are not so many sunny days in this country, geothermal energy is problematic, since the region is not as geologically active as Iceland. But the winds in the UK abound, especially on the coast. The British have learned to use this energy remarkably. More and more wind turbines are being built in the country. Recently on the coast of Liverpool launched the largest station of its kind in the world. The wind power plant includes 32 “windmills”, each 200 meters high. The total area of ​​the station is 40 square kilometers.







Most alternative energy sources are hardly reliable. The same solar power plants work fine when the sun shines brightly, giving maximum energy, wind power in calm does not give electricity at all. On the other hand, if several such sources are used at once, they can replace each other in the absence of optimal conditions for operation of one of the elements of the “green” energy infrastructure of a state or the whole continent.