The European renewable energy sector reaches the halfway point of the year

While Germany covers 56% of its electricity demand with renewables, France exceeds 10 GW of photovoltaic capacity and Norway announces the construction of a lithium battery factory. The European renewable sector does not stop.

News continues to flow in the European renewable sector despite the impact that the global coronavirus pandemic is having on the economy. And June is coming loaded with “good news” regarding the implementation of renewable energies in these countries, whose commitments to reduce the impact of their economies on the climate require ever-increasing investment.

The first of these news comes from Germany, where according to data provided by the Fraunhofer Institute, in the first five months of the year renewable energies have achieved a share in the energy mix of 56%. Wind power has accounted for 32.7% of production, solar 9.9%, bioenergy 9.8% and hydroelectric 3.8%. This has banished fossil fuels to a share of less than a third of the Bavarian country’s electricity production and nuclear power to 12%.

Meanwhile, further north on the European continent, Norway is emerging as the location of a large lithium-sulfur battery factory aimed at supporting the nascent electric vehicle industry. These facilities, which would have a total capacity of 32 gigawatt-hours, would be managed by the Norwegian company Morrow Batteries, a joint venture between Graphene Batteriesand Agder Energy Ventures, and would be located in Adger County. The news comes after the arrival of Tesla in Germany, which is expected to be completed by mid-2021, and only strengthens the commitment to this type of technology on the continent.

This new factory, which aims to be one of the greenest in the world in its sector, will not be ready until 2024 and will consist of three large production modules, 8 GWh each, which will require a workforce of approximately 2,500 people.

France reaches 10.1 GW of photovoltaic energy

Further south, more specifically in the south of France, photovoltaic energy has increased its potential after installing 182 new MW, which has made the French country exceed, by one megawatt, 10 GW of photovoltaic energy in the first quarter of the year, which represents an increase of 7% compared to the same period of the previous year.