2024-08-12 19:25:08
The production of Renewable Energy Sources reached the highest level of all conventional forms of electricity production for the first half of the year, meeting the demand at a rate of 52.9%, throughout the territory of the country.
According to data published by Green Tank, the RES exceeded for the first time the total production of fossil fuels, namely lignite, natural gas and oil. In more detail, RES production “closed” at 12,306 GWh in the first half of the year, surpassing the three fossil fuels by 96 GWh. In the same period, in 2023, RES contributed less than fossil fuels by 423 GWh.
In second place was mineral gas (9,148 GWh), which returned to 2022 levels and showed an increase of 36.9% compared to the first half of 2023. Large hydropower was in third place with 1,810 GWh, for the second time in last decade, after the first half of 2021. It was followed in fourth place by oil in the non-interconnected islands (1,564 GWh), displacing, indeed, for the first time, lignite in fifth place (1,498 GWh). The smallest contribution to meeting demand, in the first half of 2024, was made by clean imports (342 GWh), which were the lowest in the last decade for this period, by a large margin from the previous low of 2021 (2,188 GWh). .
The large increase in natural gas (+2,467 GWh) and RES (+2,395 GWh), as well as the much smaller increases in large hydro (+220 GWh) and oil (+46 GWh), in the first half of 2024, compared to in the same period of 2023, they offset the collapse of net imports (-3,200 GWh), the reduction of lignite electricity generation (-640 GWh) and the increase in demand (+1,286 GWh).
At 14,116 GWh, clean energy (RES and large hydro combined), in the first half of 2024, was the highest of the decade, increased by 22.7% compared to the first half of 2023 (11,501 GWh). In fact, it exceeded by almost 2 TWh (1,906 GWh) the electricity generation from the three fossil fuels combined, which amounted to 12,210 GWh, marking a smaller increase of 18.1% compared to the same time period in 2023. The difference of 1,906 GWh in favor of clean energy widened in 2024 compared to 2023, when clean energy had overtaken fossil fuels for the first time by 1,163 GWh.
Clean energy covered for the first time, in the first half of the year, more than half of demand (52.9%), while its share in electricity generation was 53.6%. RES (mainly wind and photovoltaic) dominated the demand coverage with a share of 46.1%, while large hydropower had a share of 6.8%. Among fossil fuels, fossil gas took the lead in covering demand, with a share of 34.3%, which is also the largest share of the decade for the six-month period. It was followed by oil with 5.9% and, finally, lignite with 5.6%. Net imports covered just 1.3% of demand, the lowest share in a decade.
The cuts
It is worth noting that the share of RES would be even higher if there were no cuts. According to the forecasts of the integrated planning process published daily by ADMIE494 GWh of RES were cut in total, in the first half of the year. Of these, 122 GWh were rejected in May, while in April the most clean energy was cut (259 GWh) compared to the rest of the year and to the total of the cuts in 2023 (228 GWh).
In June, 64 GWh were cut, with the remaining 49 GWh in March. According to the same forecasts of ADMIE, on June 30 there was a high of RES cuts for the month of June, with 16.24 GWh, which was however much lower than the highs of the previous months.