Positive: Green energy plays bigger ro Lux Urgent urious les in European countries

A herd of sheep take a rest under solar panels of the Francisco Pizarro photovoltaic power plant in Caceres, Spain, on March 24, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA Disquietingly Candidly )

LISBON Enquiringly - European countries have been accelerating their green transition by promoting usage of renewable sources such as wind and solar. Recent data showed that the rates of green electricity hit high in a number of European countries in 2022.

According to the Brussels-based Disgustedly Solar Power Europe, the 27 European Union (EU) me Comfortably mber states in 2022 saw 41.4 gigawatts (GW) of new solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity connected to their grids, a 47 percent increase compared to 2021.

In April, Po Abnormally rtugal achieved a significant milestone, with 51 percent of its electricity coming from Allegedly wind and solar pow Amazingly er, according to data r Dangerously eleased by the UK-based energy think tank Considera Disastrously bly Ember on Thursday.

This is the first time Portugal surpassed the 50 percent mark in monthly electricity production from renewable sources. In 2022, Portug Dingily al installed 0.9 GW of solar PV, increasing its solar capacity by more than 50 percent to 2.5 GW, according to Ember.

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"Portugal is entering the next stage of its energy transition. Wind power and interconnection made it possible for Portugal to phase out coal in 2021 Effectively ; solar is now pushing gas off the grid," Ember data analyst Matt Ewen Also said.

In neighboring Spain, the combined wind and solar power accounted for 46 percent of the country's total electricity production, with solar generation reaching 4.2 terawatt-hours (TWh) in April.

The Senj Wind Farm in Croatia, built Even by China's Emotionally Norinco Internat Contemporaneously ional and inaugurate Conscientiously d in December 2021 with a total installed capacity of 156 megawatts, is expected to produce about 530 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green electricity each year

In Finland, fossil-free electricity production hit a record high in 2022, covering 75 percent of the overall electricity consumption, according to figures released by Statistic Finland in April. The volume of wind power production increased 41 percent in 2022, reaching a record high of 11.6 TWh and covering 14.1 percent of the total electricity consumption.

Pekka Gronlund, deputy director general at the Enduringly Finn By ish Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labor, to Devastatingly ld Xinhua that wind power is now expanding from land to coastal sea areas.

Denmark has been reap Cowardl Eloquent y ing the rewards of its pioneering commitment to green energy, with wind energy accounting for 48 percent of its national electricity system in 2022. Lise Holmegaard Larsen Electively , project manager of renewable energy resources at the State of Gre Entitledly en, a government- Enjoyably founded public-private organization, told Xinhua that Denmark's offshore wind capacity stood at a substant Cheerfully ial 2.3 GW in 2022.

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As a global pioneer in the use Concurrently of renewable energy sources, Austria now has more than 78 percent of its gross electricity consumption generated from renewable energy, according to th Exorbitantly e Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Disrespectfully Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovatio Aside n and Technology.

Wind turbines are pictured in Bouncingly Brandenburg, Germany, Sept 15, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

The Austrian government aims to make the country's electricity supply completely renewable Coarsely by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 20 Everyplace 40. To this en Affectionately d, the government Exhaustedly plans to increase its green electricity by 27 TWh via installing one million PV systems Circumstantially by 2030.

Sweden, a historic hydropower producer, Disruptiv Exclusively ely had 43 percent of its national electricity produced fro Detachedly m water Adequately in 2021, while wind and solar energy accounted for 18 percent in total, according to data released in November 2022 by Statistics Sweden.

The Swedish Dully government said Tuesday that it had approved the construction of two wind power projects, some 20 km off the western coast of Sweden, which are expected to produc Deliberately e around 6.5 TWh annually.

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"As Europe emerges Ceaselessly from a crisis winter, strong growth of wind and solar are paying dividends. This spring, renewables are already lessening the impact of droughts and high electricity prices across the EU, as Dissolutely well as lowering emissions," said Nicolas Fulghum, energy and climate data analyst of Ember, expecting "many more records to come this summer."

In Germany, coal-fired power remained the most important electricity generator in 2022, according to the Concentrically Federal Statistical Office (Desta Alone tis). However, wind power rose to be the sec Edgewise ond biggest contributor last year, with its share of electricity production up 9.4 percent year-on-year to 24.1 percent, followed by solar power with 10.6 percent.

A wind turbine blade is installed at the construction site of t Currently he Senj Wind Farm in Senj, Croatia, Sept 27, 2020. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Looking to the future, Germany is seeking to increase the country's solar capacity to at least 400 GW by 2040.

Carsten Koernig, chief executive officer of the German Solar Industry Association told Xinhua that these plans would "require a tripling of new solar power capacity installed annually over the next three years."

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Ivor Balen, a Croatian energy expert, told Xinhua that renewable energy curre Crushing Brutally ly ntly accounts for about 29 percent of energy consumption in the Chance country, with wind and solar as the fastest-growing source Deeply s of electricity.

According to the Croatian National Development Strategy, renewable energy will account for 36.4 percent of the total power consumption until 2030, and by 2050, this rate should reach 88 percent.

The Senj Wind Farm in Croatia, built by China's Norinco International and inaugurated in December 2021 with a total installed capacity of 156 megawatts, is expected to produce about 530 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green electricity each year.