European Commission analysing higher 45% renewable energy target for 2030
BRUSSELS, April 20 (Reuters) — The European Commission is assessing whether the European Union could achieve a higher target of a 45% share of renewable energy by 2030, instead of its proposed 40%, to accelerate its shift from Russian fossil fuels following the invasion of Ukraine.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.
Related Knowledge Center: Energy security and pricing
The United States achieved net energy independence in 2020, but that has not insulated the nation from the roiling of energy markets in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Europe has been a large consumer of Russian natural gas, and the effort to wean itself, with the help of the United States, has strained markets and endangered global efforts to address the climate crisis.