As Trump Dumps Clean Energy, Fossil Fuels Lose Their Grip On Europe

As U.S. president Donald Trump promises to “drill baby drill,” new figures from Europe show fossil fuels are being pushed out of the EU’s electricity system, with solar energy generation overtaking coal power for the first time.

Hot on the heels of Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and stopping American offshore wind projects, energy research group Ember announced Wednesday that clean energy sources generated more than 70% of the EU’s electricity in 2024, while electricity generation from fossil fuels fell 8.7% to comprise just 28.9% of the total.

Significantly, solar power rose 21.7% to generate more than 11% of the EU’s electricity, while a fall in coal generation led to the most polluting fossil fuel producing just 9.8% of the total.

“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy,” said report lead author Chris Rosslowe, commenting on the release. “At the start of the European Green Deal in 2019, few thought the EU’s energy transition could be where it is today; wind and solar are pushing coal to the margins and forcing gas into structural decline.”

Not including nuclear power, renewables rose 7.6% from 2023 figures to generate almost 48% of European electricity last year. The rapid drop in the use of fossil fuels, meanwhile, caused EU power sector emissions to fall to 585 million tons of CO2—less than half the peak of 1,218 million tons seen in 2007.

The developments serve to highlight this week’s events in the U.S., where returning president Donald Trump—who has called climate change a “hoax” and has spread false claims that wind turbines cause cancer—has pledged to increase the production of fossil fuels and halt green energy projects.

Stranded Assets

Pointing to Ember’s findings, Ember’s insights director Dave Jones warned that Trump’s order to halt wind farm development could jeopardize the U.S. economy.

"The U.S. is diverging from global trends on wind power," Jones said, pointing out that in 2023, the U.S. derived 10% of its electricity from wind. "Major economies are embracing wind as a source of cheap, clean electricity. The U.S. risks being left behind in the clean industrial revolution."

Indeed, Ember’s findings indicate that, even before the return of Trump to the Oval Office, U.S. wind power had begun lagging behind other major powers.

On the other hand, said Costa Samaras, director of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University, when it comes to solar energy deployment, America has been mirroring Europe.

"The big story for electricity generation in 2024 in the EU is the same as in the U.S.: an explosive demand for solar power," Samaras told me, pointing out that solar power was the main source of new electricity capacity additions in the States last year.

Samaras warned that Washington’s fossil fuel-focused change in direction, with for example a renewed emphasis on exports of liquified natural gas (LNG), could leave the U.S. increasingly trying to sell a product for which demand is falling. "Every gigawatt of new solar and wind capacity that comes online helps displace some imports of natural gas from Russia," Samaras noted. "But it also ultimately lowers demand for imports of U.S. LNG." In a 2023 report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, researchers showed that Europe’s shift to clean energy could result in more than half of the continent’s LNG infrastructure being unused by 2030, leading to billions of dollars being wasted on what experts refer to as "stranded assets."

Samaras urged the new administration not to squander the dividends being yielded by former president Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which has predominantly helped Republican states and districts.

"The IRA jump-started a U.S. solar and grid battery manufacturing and deployment ecosystem, which can help expand global supply chains and ease price pressures for EU clean energy demand," Samaras said. "U.S. policymakers have an opportunity to build on the success of the IRA to boost clean energy equipment exports to the EU and beyond—if the IRA stays in place."