Europe, the Coal Fairy

“The global energy crisis is driving a sharp acceleration in installations of renewable power, with total capacity growth worldwide set to almost double in the next five years, overtaking coal as the largest source of electricity generation along the way and helping keep alive the possibility of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C.”

This is the intro to the IEA’s new report, Renewables 2022, which paints such a bright, renewable picture of the future I felt like saluting the first time I read it and I’ve never been in the military.

Further on, the report says that this acceleration is already visible, especially in Europe as it finds itself in the unfamiliar waters of self-reliance and tries to navigate them. What, for some odd reason, the report omits is the acceleration of coal use, not just in Europe but all over the world. And it is this acceleration that could end up taking the upper hand over the renewable power acceleration.

Ever since Europe found itself in dire gas straits, it became the largest buyer of liquefied natural gas from the United States and started outbidding Asian buyers on cargos from other sources, too. Germany last month made history by buying tis first LNG cargo from Australia.

This, as we have all seen, made LNG unaffordable for the poorer countries in Asia. Guess what they are doing: leaning back on coal. Even those that can afford LNG purchases at current prices are stocking up on coal. And those who are producing the reviled fossil fuel are planning to produce more of it. But sure, solar and wind will totally replace coal in five years.