Weathering the winter

The report 'Weathering the winter' by Ember analyzes the EU power system's performance from October 2022 to March 2023. It finds that a combination of record renewable generation and significant reductions in electricity demand prevented a predicted return to coal and gas, resulting in the lowest winter power sector emissions on record.

• For the first time during a winter period, renewable energy sources generated a larger share of EU electricity than fossil fuels, accounting for 40% of generation compared to 37% for fossil fuels between October and March.
• EU electricity demand fell by 6.2% compared to the five-year average from November to March, resulting in electricity savings valued at €12 billion. France and Germany saw the highest absolute savings at €3.4bn and €2.5bn respectively, while Finland had the highest per capita savings at €65.
• The anticipated 'coal comeback' did not occur; coal generation decreased by 11% (27 TWh) and gas generation decreased by 13% (38 TWh) compared to the previous winter. Coal generation fell in 15 of the 18 EU countries that use coal, with Germany and Poland accounting for 60% of the total EU reduction.
• EU power sector emissions for the winter period were the lowest ever recorded at 321 mtCO2eq, which is 42 mtCO2eq lower than the previous winter.
• Seventeen EU Member States met or exceeded the mandatory target to reduce electricity consumption by 5% during peak hours. Romania saw the largest peak reduction at 15%, while Ireland was the only country to record an average increase in peak demand.
• Nuclear generation in the EU fell by 13% (47 TWh) compared to the previous winter, with issues in France's nuclear fleet causing nearly two-thirds of this decline.

APA

Rosslowe, D. C., Fox, H., & Brown, S. (2023). Weathering the winter. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Weathering-the-winter.pdf

Chicago

Rosslowe, Dr Chris, Harriet Fox, and Sarah Brown. Weathering the winter. Ember, 2023. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Weathering-the-winter.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rosslowe |first1=Dr Chris |last2=Fox |first2=Harriet |last3=Brown |first3=Sarah |title=Weathering the winter |publisher=Ember |date=27 April 2023 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Weathering-the-winter.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rosslowe2023weathering, author = {Rosslowe, Dr Chris and Fox, Harriet and Brown, Sarah}, title = {{Weathering the winter}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Weathering-the-winter.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }