Europe has made huge progress in boosting its renewable energy capacity in recent years. For the first time ever, wind and solar power generation topped the share of electricity provided by fossil fuels in the first half of 2024.

Yet, this week, hourly power prices for the peak demand morning and evening hours soared to the highest level since the height of the energy crisis in the autumn of 2022. The reason was quite simple and unpredictable—very low wind speeds in northwest Europe which resulted in slumping wind power generation.

To meet power demand in what is now officially the winter heating season in Europe, major economies – including Germany and the UK – had to rely on more natural gas for electricity generation.

Power Prices Soar

The slump in wind generation and the additional gas required to back up the electricity system pushed power prices higher and prompted some emergency grid stabilizing measures.

In Germany’s case, the so-called ‘Dunkelflaute’, German for “dark wind lull”, resulted in wind farms in Europe’s biggest economy generating early this week just 7% of their nameplate capacity. This lull in wind power sent day-ahead electricity prices for Wednesday’s peak demand hours to high levels not seen since the peak energy crisis in 2022.

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The UK, for its part, saw on Tuesday just 4% of its electricity demand in peak morning and evening hours met by wind power, while natural gas-fired generation topped 60% of the power mix. The share of natural gas in the UK power generation jumped to the highest level in a year, since November 2023. Most UK households heat with gas, so demand for the fossil fuel has also jumped.

The predicament for Europe is that even if wind and solar installations hit record-highs and clean power generation outstrips fossil fuels (when weather cooperates), economies need reliable, weather-independent, and flexible back-up generation and, to fully use the power of renewables – a lot of energy storage capacity.

Renewables Surge…

The advance of renewable energy is undeniable—Europe has rushed to install record wind and solar capacity over the past few years, especially after the 2022 energy crisis when most of Russia’s gas pipeline flows stopped.

Surging solar and wind electricity output displaced one-fifth of the European Union’s fossil-fuel power generation between 2019 and 2023, according to data from clean energy think tank Ember.

Wind and solar power generation overtook fossil fuel electricity in the EU in the first half of 2024, for the first time, Ember said in a separate report earlier this year.

Between January and June, the share of wind and solar in the EU’s power mix was 30%, compared to 27% for fossil-powered electricity.

Power demand in the EU rose by 0.7% in the first half, rebounding from two years of declines during the energy crisis, Ember said, acknowledging that a mild 2023/2024 winter limited the rise in overall power demand.

Wind and solar combined overtook fossil fuel power generation in 13 EU Member States, with four of these hitting the milestone for the first time in 2024 over a January-June period: Germany, Belgium, Hungary, and the Netherlands, according to the think tank.

These numbers are great when weather is favorable for wind and solar generation. When it’s not, it falls back on more fossil fuels to fill in the gap, at least until a significant boost in energy storage helps renewable power be dispatched when it is needed.

…But Energy Storage Lags

Europe, and the rest of the world, need solutions to tackle the intermittency in wind and solar generation and to expand and overhaul grids so that they are capable of handling surging renewable capacity. Essentially, if the booming wind and solar power doesn’t have a way to access the grid, it’s pointless to tout the record-breaking capacity additions.

Grid investments are lagging behind renewable additions and a lack of transmission capacity could hold back the energy transition, Ember said in a report earlier this year.

“Making sure solar and wind can actually connect to the system is as critical as the panels and turbines themselves,” says Elisabeth Cremona, Energy & Climate Data Analyst at Ember.

Thanks to soaring renewables capacity additions and power generation, wind and solar contribution was particularly strong during daylight hours this summer, Ember said last month.

While reliance on fossil power has fallen quickly during daylight hours, it remains relatively high during early mornings and evenings, the think tank noted.

Due to the nature of wind and solar generation, intra-day power prices have varied wildly. These “large and widening intra-day price spreads strengthen the business case for battery storage,” Ember’s analysts say.

“While renewable shares are quickly growing across the EU, measures to provide that flexibility have not yet been equally planned for or implemented,” they added.

This week’s power price surge due to very low wind speeds highlighted the urgent need for Europe to rapidly expand battery storage and other flexibility solutions for clean energy if it wants to truly benefit from renewables and move away from fossil power.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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