Photovoltaics and Wind Energy in Europe's Energy Transition

There is a time gap between the installation of renewable energy technologies and the moment from which they contribute to net CO2 mitigation. Arkaitz Usubiaga (former scientist at the Wuppertal Institute, now UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources), José Acosta-Fernández (Wuppertal Institute), Will McDowall (UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources) and Francis G.N. Li (UCL Energy Institute) analysed onshore and offshore wind energy and PV panels and came to the conclusion that wind energy have had a positive contribution to climate change mitigation since the beginning of their diffusion in EU27 countries while PV panels did not pay off from an environmental standpoint until very recently. In the case of PV, the benefits expected at the individual plant level were offset until 2013 by the CO2 emissions related to the construction and deployment of the next generation of panels.

The analysis demonstrates that the time-profile of renewable energy emissions can be relevant for target-setting and detailed policy design, though this is not usually considered. It is important, however, to take the time gap into consideration when renewable energy strategies are combined with carbon pricing through cap-and-trade systems.

The paper "Exploring the macro-scale CO2 mitigation potential of photovoltaics and wind energy in Europe's energy transition" was published in Energy Policy, volume 104. It is available for purchase via ScienceDirect.