Wind and solar overtook fossil gas in Europe for the first time
Wind and solar generated a record one-fifth (22%) of electricity in the European Union in 2022 – overtaking fossil gas (20%) for the first time, according to a new study published today.
Energy think tank Ember’s analysis, “European Electricity Review,” also reveals that coal power share increased by just 1.5 percentage points to generate 16% of EU electricity in 2022, with year-on-year falls in the last four months of 2022 as Europe prevented a threatened return to coal power in the wake of the 2022 energy crisis.
Dave Jones, head of data insights at Ember, said:
Europe has avoided the worst of the energy crisis.
The shocks of 2022 only caused a minor ripple in coal power and a huge wave of support for renewables. Any fears of a coal rebound are now dead.
Record wind and solar growth in Europe
Europe faced a triple crisis in the electricity sector in 2022, according to Ember. As Europe scrambled to cut ties with Russia, its largest fossil gas supplier, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it faced the lowest levels of hydro and nuclear in at least 20 years, and that created a deficit equal to 7% of Europe’s total electricity demand in 2022.
But record wind and solar growth helped cushion the hydro and nuclear deficit. Solar rose the fastest, growing by a record 39 TWh (24%) in 2022 – almost twice its previous record – which helped to avoid €10 billion in gas costs. Twenty EU countries set new solar records in 2022.
Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe, said:
Solar is stepping up right when Europe needs it most. These new numbers show that rapid solar growth is truly the foundation of the energy transition.
In 2023, with the right support, solar will break more records, reduce fossil energy demand further, and take us one year closer to a 100% renewable Europe.
Lower electricity demand also helped reduce the deficit. EU electricity demand dropped by 7.9% in the last quarter of 2022 compared to the same period the previous year (-56 TWh). Mild weather played a large part, along with affordability pressures, energy efficiency improvements, and EU citizens actively cutting energy in response to the crisis in Ukraine.
Just one-sixth of the nuclear and hydro deficit was met by coal. Coal generation rose by 7% (+28 TWh). As a result, EU power sector emissions rose by 3.9% (+26 MtCO2) in 2022 compared to 2021. But wind, solar, and a fall in electricity demand prevented a much larger return to coal. So contextually, coal’s rise was not substantial: It remained below 2018 levels and added only 0.3% to global coal generation.
Coal power in the EU fell in all four of the final months of 2022, down 6% year-on-year. The 26 coal units placed on emergency standby for winter ran at an average of just 18% capacity. Despite importing 22 million tonnes of extra coal throughout 2022, the EU only used one-third of it.
Surprisingly, fossil gas generation was almost unchanged (+0.8%) in 2022 compared to 2021, despite record-high prices. Gas generated 20% of EU electricity in 2022, up from 19% the previous year. However, this is expected to change drastically in 2023.
Fossil gas is going to plunge in 2023
In 2023, Europe’s wind and solar transition is expected to speed up in response to the energy crisis, and hydro and French nuclear is going to recover. So fossil fuel generation could drop by 20% in 2023, double the previous record from 2020, according to Ember.
Coal generation will fall, but fossil gas generation, which is expected to remain more expensive than coal until at least 2025, will fall the fastest.
Ember’s Jones said:
Europe’s clean power transition emerges from this crisis stronger than ever.
Not only are European countries still committed to phasing out coal, they are now striving to phase out gas as well. The energy crisis has undoubtedly sped up Europe’s electricity transition. Europe is hurtling towards a clean, electrified economy, and this will be on full display in 2023.
Change is coming fast, and everyone needs to be ready for it.
Read more: Solar will become 10 times cheaper than gas in Europe – study
Photo: Orsted
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Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the second quarter (Q2) 2025 after market close today.
We are updating this post with all the details from the financial results, shareholders’ letter, and the conference call later tonight. Refresh for the latest information.
Tesla Q2 2025 earnings expectations
As we reported in our Tesla Q2 2025 earnings preview yesterday, the Wall Street consensus for this quarter was $22.279 billion in revenue and earnings of $0.40 per share.
The expectations had been significantly downgraded over the last month, as analysts were surprised by Tesla’s announcement of much lower deliveries than expected in the first quarter.
How did Tesla do compared to expectations?
Tesla Q2 2025 financial results
After the market closed today, Tesla released its financial results for the first quarter and confirmed that it delivered on expectations with earnings of $0.40 per share (non-GAAP), and it exceeded revenue expectations with $22.496 billion during the last quarter.
Tesla’s earnings per share are down 23% year-over-year amid a booming EV market.
Operating income decreased 42% year-over-year to now less than $1 billion, and almost half of it came from regulatory credits.
Tesla’s cash on hand has decreased this quarter for the first time in years. The company lost about $200 million of its giant war chest – now sitting at $36.8 billion.
We will be posting our follow-up posts here about the earnings and conference call to expand on the most important points (refresh the page to see the most recent posts):
Here’s Tesla’s Q2 2025 shareholder presentation in full:
Here’s Tesla’s conference call for the Q2 2025 results:
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Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot, which CEO Elon Musk claims is ahead of the industry and will sell in the trillions of dollars, failed while serving popcorn on the first day of Tesla’s new diner launch.
Musk has been touting Optimus as a revolutionary product that will generate “trillions of dollars” per year for Tesla.
It’s the latest pivot that the CEO has led Tesla into, as electric vehicle sales are declining, and it is becoming increasingly clear that its self-driving effort is unlikely to be profitable anytime soon.
The company needs new revenue streams to justify a $1 trillion valuation, given its declining revenue and earnings.
However, we have been reporting on how the program appears to be in shambles lately.
Last month, Tesla’s head of the program, Milan Kovac, left the company just a few months after being promoted to vice-president.
Earlier this month, we learned that Tesla paused production to perform some much-needed upgrades to the current version of the robot, as it is reportedly currently only able to move some batteries within Tesla’s workshop at a rate lower than that of human workers.
That’s despite Tesla claiming for months that the robot is already performing useful work within its factories and plans to ramp up production to 100,000 units per month next year, with the goal of starting to sell the robot.
Aside from gullible Tesla shareholders, not many people believe this narrative. The main issue is that Tesla is not seen as having a lead in humanoid robots, which is still a nascent industry, and its previous demonstrations have been misleading.
For example, Tesla was less than forthcoming about its robots being teleoperated by humans during its ‘We, Robot’ event last year.
The launch of its new diner in Los Angeles was the latest occasion to showcase Optimus. Tesla had an Optimus robot serve popcorn to customers.
Again, Tesla employees at the event confirmed to attendees that the robot was teleoperated, which makes the demonstration unimpressive to start with, but the disappointment doesn’t stop there.
The robot was seen frozen and stopped operating during the first day of the Tesla diner launch.
Attendees were told that the robot lost connection.
Electrek’s Take
To be clear, Tesla can only get the Optimus robot to serve popcorn for a short period before it fails, even with the use of human teleoperation.
Yet, Musk claims that Tesla will make 100,000 of these next year and sell them to customers.
It makes no sense. It’s similar to Tesla’s robotaxi service in Austin, which requires teleoperation and a human safety monitor with a finger on a kill switch at all times.
That said, I honestly believe that Tesla will be able to scale Optimus faster than its robotaxi service. However, they will both scale much slower than Tesla shareholders currently believe and the competition is already ahead of both.
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BYD officially launched the Atto 1 in Indonesia on Wednesday. Starting at just $12,000 (IDR 195 million), the Atto 1 is now one of the most affordable EVs on the market.
BYD launches the Atto 1 entry-level EV
The Atto 1 is a rebadged version of BYD’s top-selling electric car in China, the Seagull EV. BYD’s smallest and most affordable EV is sold under the names Dolphin Mini and Dolphin Surf in other overseas markets.
BYD introduced the Atto 1 at the Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS) on Wednesday, priced from IDR 195 million, or about $12,000.
The new entry-level EV is available in two trims: Standard Range Dynamic and Long Range Premium. Powered by a 30.08 kWh BYD Blade battery, the standard range Atto 1 Dynamic offers a NEDC range of 300 km (186 miles).
Upgrading to the Premium model costs IDR 235 million ($14,500), but it’s equipped with a bigger 38.88 kWh battery, providing an NEDC range of 380 km (236 miles).
The interior resembles that of other BYD brand vehicles, featuring a minimalist, high-tech smart cockpit. It features a 10.1″ intelligent touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as a 7″ digital driver’s instrument display.
Meanwhile, the Long Range Premium version comes with an added wireless charging pad and a tilt-and-telescopic steering wheel.
At 3,959 mm long, 1,720 mm wide, and 1,590 mm tall, the Atto 1 is smaller than a Toyota Yaris, but slightly bigger than the Kia Picanto.
“This launch in Indonesia marks the first release of the Atto 1 in ASEAN, and the car is now available for pre-order,” BYD Indonesia’s operations director, Nathan Sun, said at the event.
The Atto 1 is BYD’s third electric vehicle to arrive in Indonesia, and the brand’s most affordable yet. BYD also sells the Seal, starting at IDR 629 million, Atto 3 SUV (IDR 515 million), and Dolphin (IDR 425 million).
Indonesia is the largest auto market in Southeast Asia, and EV sales are picking up with new government policies supporting local production. In the first half of the year, the EV market share doubled to 10% from 5% in the same period last year.
Earlier today, Toyota, which controls around 30% of the Indonesian auto market, announced plans to begin building EVs locally by the end of 2025.
Source: JakartaGlobe, BYD Indonesia
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