{"id":257705,"date":"2026-01-29T13:10:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/257705\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:10:29","slug":"solar-and-wind-overtake-fossil-fuels-in-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/257705\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar and wind overtake fossil fuels in the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wind and solar power overtook fossil fuels last year as a source of electricity in the EU for the first time, a new report found.<\/p>\n<p>The milestone was hit largely thanks to a rise in solar power, which generated a record 13% of electricity in the EU, <a href=\"https:\/\/ember-energy.org\/latest-insights\/european-electricity-review-2026\/\" class=\"styles_linkEmbed__SNmaX\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">according to Ember<\/a>. Together, wind and solar hit 30% of EU electricity generation, edging out fossil fuels at 29%. The shift is especially important with the bloc\u2019s alternative to Russian LNG \u2014 Washington \u2014 becoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/europe-soaring-dependence-us-gas-imports\/\" class=\"styles_linkEmbed__SNmaX\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">increasingly unreliable<\/a> and willing to weaponize economic tools. The US Commerce Secretary threw shade at the bloc\u2019s renewable push during Davos, warning that China uses net zero goals to make allies \u201csubservient\u201d by controlling battery and critical mineral supply chains.<\/p>\n<p>Still, renewables now provide nearly half of EU power, with wind and solar outpacing all fossil sources in more than half of member countries. \u201cThe stakes of transitioning to clean energy are clearer than ever,\u201d the Ember report\u2019s author said.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/b63281e7270ef363a5e9f03d9c5c1124c9d02f2d-1599x1452.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"726\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"styles_imageEmbed__QsLwb styles_fullContentArea__zXct_\" style=\"color:transparent\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wind and solar power overtook fossil fuels last year as a source of electricity in the EU for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-257705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}