For the first time in history, wind energy generated more electricity across the European Union than natural gas — a milestone that marks a decisive shift in how Europe powers itself. A 2023 C.E. analysis by the energy think tank Ember found that renewables collectively supplied nearly half of all E.U. electricity, while fossil fuels fell to roughly a third. It is the clearest sign yet that the transition away from fossil fuels in Europe is not a distant goal but an ongoing reality.
At a glance
- Wind power: Generated more electricity across the E.U. in 2023 C.E. than natural gas — the first time this has ever happened.
- Coal generation: Fell by 26 percent in 2023 C.E., the steepest single-year drop on record for the European power sector.
- Power sector emissions: Dropped by 19 percent in 2023 C.E., driven by the combined rise of renewables and falling demand across the bloc.
A system built on wind and solar
The numbers from Ember’s analysis paint a striking picture. In 2023 C.E., coal generation across the E.U. fell by 26 percent and gas generation by 15 percent. Those declines, combined with a record pace of renewable energy construction and a dip in overall electricity demand, pushed power sector emissions down by 19 percent — an unprecedented single-year drop.
Sarah Brown, an analyst at Ember, described the change as a “monumental shift.” She noted that fossil fuels are “playing a smaller role than ever as a system with wind and solar as its backbone comes into view.” That framing matters: this is no longer just about adding clean energy at the margins. It is about what the core of Europe’s electricity grid is becoming.
Renewables as a whole — wind, solar, and others — generated nearly half of Europe’s electricity in 2023 C.E. Nuclear contributed around a quarter. Fossil fuels, once dominant, accounted for only about a third.
How Europe got here
The backdrop to this milestone is turbulent. When Russia invaded Ukraine, natural gas exports to Europe dropped sharply, triggering energy security fears across the continent. Many observers expected Europe to lean heavily on coal to fill the gap. Instead, the bloc accelerated its renewable energy buildout and pushed hard on demand reduction — and it worked.
New infrastructure was built to import liquefied natural gas from overseas, partly as a short-term buffer. But the feared resurgence of coal never materialized. By investing in wind and solar and managing demand more carefully, Europe sidestepped the worst-case scenario and emerged with a cleaner power mix than it had before the crisis began.
This resilience was not accidental. Years of policy investment in renewable energy targets under the E.U.’s Renewable Energy Directive created the conditions for this shift. So did rising carbon prices under the EU Emissions Trading System, which made coal increasingly uncompetitive.
What still needs to happen
Europe’s progress is real, but the work is far from finished. Analysts warn that electricity demand is expected to rise significantly in the coming years as heat pumps replace gas boilers in homes and electric vehicles replace petrol cars on roads. To keep pace with that demand without backsliding on emissions, Europe will need to roughly double down on renewable capacity — building faster and smarter than it already has.
Grid infrastructure is one area of concern. Experts at Agora Energiewende have noted that transmission networks in many parts of Europe were not designed for a system dominated by variable wind and solar. Upgrading them is expensive, politically complex, and slow. Permitting bottlenecks have also stalled projects in several member states, including Germany — despite its status as one of the continent’s wind energy leaders.
Energy poverty remains an unresolved dimension of the transition. While lower wholesale electricity prices benefit consumers broadly, the costs of building out new infrastructure and storage are not always distributed equitably. Lower-income households and countries in Central and Eastern Europe face a harder path through this shift than wealthier Western European nations.
Why this moment matters
The significance of wind surpassing natural gas is partly symbolic, but symbols carry weight in energy policy. They shift what investors, governments, and consumers believe is possible. A decade ago, few analysts predicted that wind would overtake gas in the E.U. by 2023 C.E. The fact that it has — in the middle of an energy crisis, no less — changes the terms of the debate about what comes next.
The International Renewable Energy Agency projects that the global energy transition will accelerate through the late 2020s C.E., with Europe remaining one of its leading examples. The E.U.’s 2023 C.E. power sector results suggest those projections may be conservative. Wind and solar are not just growing — they are becoming the backbone of a continent’s electricity supply, exactly as Ember’s analysts described.
It is a milestone earned through policy, investment, and collective will. And it points toward a version of Europe — and perhaps the world — that was, not long ago, considered optimistic to imagine.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Yale Environment 360
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- U.K. cancer death rates down to their lowest level on record
- The Good News for Humankind archive on renewable energy
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