European Electricity Review 2022

The European Electricity Review 2022 by Ember analyzes EU-27 electricity generation data for 2021, highlighting a 'paradigm shift' where new renewable energy replaced expensive fossil gas instead of coal due to a price crisis. While wind and solar reached record generation, the report warns that the EU's power sector emissions are declining at less than half the rate required to meet 1.5°C targets, partly because renewables are replacing gas and declining nuclear capacity rather than coal.

• A 'paradigm shift' occurred in the EU's electricity transition in 2021; while renewables historically replaced coal, soaring gas prices in the second half of 2021 led new renewables to replace fossil gas instead. Since 2019, 52% of new renewable generation replaced gas, a third replaced nuclear, and only a sixth replaced coal, whereas over 80% of new renewables replaced coal between 2011 and 2019.
• EU power sector emissions are not declining fast enough to align with 1.5°C goals. Between 2019 and 2021, emissions declined at an average annual rate of 2.5%, which is less than half of the 6% annual decline required to reach zero emissions by 2035 in advanced economies.
• Wind and solar power reached a record 547 TWh in 2021, marking the first time they generated more electricity than fossil gas (524 TWh). Solar power grew significantly, producing 27% more power in 2021 than in 2019, while wind output saw a small year-on-year fall of 2% (-10 TWh) due to below-average wind speeds, particularly in Germany.
• The 2021 gas crisis, characterized by a 585% increase in TTF day-ahead gas prices, made fossil gas the most expensive method of electricity generation, exceeding both hard coal and lignite. This price shock led to record monthly wholesale power prices in December 2021 across several EU countries, including Italy (€281/MWh) and France (€275/MWh).
• Coal generation has only declined in countries that actively closed power plants, such as Spain (where output almost halved) and Greece. These reductions were largely offset by increases in other countries, most notably Poland, where coal power output increased 7% (+8 TWh) since 2019.
• The structural decline of nuclear power is hindering decarbonization, as a significant portion of renewable growth is used to replace lost nuclear output rather than fossil fuels. In the last decade, EU nuclear power output declined by 105 TWh, meaning nearly a third of wind and solar growth in that period replaced nuclear.

APA

Moore, C., Brown, S., MacDonald, P., Ewen, M., & Broadbent, H. (2022). European Electricity Review 2022. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2022/02/Report-EER.pdf

Chicago

Moore, Charles, Sarah Brown, Phil MacDonald, Matt Ewen, and Hannah Broadbent. European Electricity Review 2022. Ember, 2022. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2022/02/Report-EER.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Moore |first1=Charles |last2=Brown |first2=Sarah |last3=MacDonald |first3=Phil |last4=Ewen |first4=Matt |last5=Broadbent |first5=Hannah |title=European Electricity Review 2022 |publisher=Ember |date=February 2022 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2022/02/Report-EER.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{moore2022european, author = {Moore, Charles and Brown, Sarah and MacDonald, Phil and Ewen, Matt and Broadbent, Hannah}, title = {{European Electricity Review 2022}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2022}, month = feb, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2022/02/Report-EER.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }