A new study demonstrates the risks posed by dry weather for Europe’s power grid
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With its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower energy bills and improve national energy security, renewable energy is only becoming more significant over time.
Nevertheless, plenty of challenges on the road to widespread clean power remain. A new study by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology has revealed how droughts reduce the effectiveness of renewables such as hydropower, and that as a result, power production from fossil fuels increases to replace the loss in energy production.
After tracking 25 European countries from 2017 to 2023, the researchers found that power production in the EU from fossil fuels increased by 180 TWh. This equals seven per cent of the EU’s total generation in 2022, according to a 2023 European Electricity Review.
Droughts are likely becoming more frequent and severe with climate change. This produces a vicious cycle where drought conditions are made worse by carbon emissions, and in turn countries are forced to use fossil fuels as pressure grows on renewable energy sources, emitting even more carbon.
The scale of the increase in emissions is notable. Fossil fuel plants used to fill the energy gap during the years studied emitted an extra 141 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. This is more than the total annual emissions from fossil fuel combustion in the Netherlands alone.
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‘It’s true that today we are still dependent on fossil fuels to compensate for shortages in renewable energy, but there are solutions that can help us get rid of this dependency,’ said the senior author of the paper and head of the university’s Industrial Ecology Programme, Francesco Cherubini.
‘We are on track to move away from this problem, but we still need changes in our electricity systems and networks,’ he said.
Many European countries already have systems in place that can help cut demand when supply is low. For example, Norwegian electric car owners can get small discounts if they sync their charging schedule with times of lower power demand.
In addition, factories, commercial buildings and homes across Europe are increasingly set up to automatically reduce their energy use for short periods when demand is at its peak.
In terms of connections between countries, the NordLink and North Sea Link cables between the UK, Germany and Norway, enable surplus power to be moved from more abundant to less abundant regions.
However, there is still a long way to go. Boosting battery storage and developing clean hydrogen are two ways to soak up surplus renewable energy when it’s abundant, and release it when hydropower is struggling with supply, said Cherubini.
Cherubini says that one of the best solutions is for countries to continue to invest in renewable energy and expand cross-border power interconnections.
Like many mitigations against climate change, long-term planning is required to get a transition – which needs to be wide in coverage and reliable in impact – to cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy..
