Of the 24.5 new gigawatts of power plant capacity built in Europe in 2016, 21.1 gigawatts, or 86%, was in the form of new wind, solar, biomass, and hydroelectric installations.
For comparison, although the numbers are not yet finalized, about 63% of new energy capacity in the US came from renewable sources, according to the US Energy Information Administration. That’s about 15 gigawatts of the new 24 gigawatts of capacity added. [...]
That means wind power now has the second largest energy capacity in Europe, after natural gas. But the most capacity to generate energy does not always translate to the most energy actually provided; as the Guardian points out, coal is still meeting more of Europe’s energy demand overall, because wind power in inherently intermittent—when there’s no wind, there’s no power.
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