I’ve seen conservatives pooh-pooh wind energy, and I’ll bet you have, too.
But wind and solar energy have provided 24% of the European Union’s electricity since Russia invaded Ukraine, and increased renewables capacity has saved EU countries $97 billion “in avoided gas imports between March and September,” CNN Business reported on Monday, October 17, 2022 (read story here).
“Nineteen of the EU’s 27 member states have achieved record wind and solar generation since March,” CNN Business added; the invasion began February 24.
During that period, wind and solar generated 345 terrawatt hours of electricity; for comparison, the entire U.S. consumes about 3,800 terrawatt hours of electricity from all generation sources (details here).
Apart from the improving economics of wind generation, Europe is trying to reduce its dependence on Russian natural gas for obvious reasons. Who wants to suck up to Putin? Or let him control the inflation rate in Europe?
