Harnessing Sunlight, Wind, and Water: can Climate Data Boost the Green Energy Sector?

The post-pandemic plans to restart and decarbonise economies will focus on renewables. Hence green industry players and grid operators are increasingly looking at climate data for energy production optimization.

2019 was particularly bright for Europeans; the continent hadn’t seen so many hours of sunshine since at least the early ’80s. It was also particularly bright for the solar energy industry, as solar generation capacity more than doubled compared to 2018, its biggest jump in a decade.

Renewables continue to get stronger: in 2019, their share of EU electricity provision reached a record-high 34.6 percent. And although the COVID-19 pandemic has put the brakes on green energy’s new facilities’ developments, renewables are becoming Europe’s key for restarting its economy and delivering its recently revised ambitions to slash its emissions by 50-55 percent by 2030.

So the industry is on a double mission: taking quickly the lion’s share of the energy system, while becoming more reliable and efficient, also in a changing climate, which in itself alters the risks.