email rounding up the latestEurope has put the rapid expansion of renewable power at the heart of its race to meet ambitious climate targets and — in the shorter term — to wean itself off Russian energy more quickly, after Moscow launched its assault on Ukraine.
Costs for key components for the wind and solar industries have risen sharply this year — part of a broader increase in commodity costs after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For example, the price of polysilicon, a key input for solar panels, has tripled since 2021, largely because of a slowdown in production in China, where tight Covid-19 restrictions remain in place, according to the International Energy Agency.
Now, with costs reversing, the European renewable energy industry’s profitability has been undermined, prompting a wave of lay-offs just as it should be scaling up its capacity. However, European policymakers have been boosting their renewable energy targets as part of a broader rethink of the region’s energy security following Moscow’s assault on Ukraine. As EU member states imposed economic sanctions on Russia, it subsequently slashed its flows of gas to the continent, exposing Europe’s heavy reliance on Russian fossil fuels.
It has found that new turbine orders totalled just 2 gigawatts, in terms of their capacity, in the third quarter this year — which is down 36 per cent compared with the same quarter the previous year.