BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.9. The progressive phase-out of fossil fuels in Europe, mainly due to massive electrification and renewables uptake will lead to a significant decrease of primary energy consumption, from 66 EJ in 2020 to 52 EJ in 2050, Trend reports with reference to DNV, an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Norway.
DNV says in its latest report that in the three last decades, the fossil-fuel share in primary energy consumption declined from 92 percent to 70 percent, mainly due to reduced coal consumption.
“We forecast that the three next decades will bring even greater transformation, and fossil fuels will represent only 28 percent of the primary energy mix by 2050. As the Ukraine war has highlighted, Europe is far from being an energy independent region. Neither regional natural gas nor oil production, mostly in Norway and the UK, cover European needs,” reads the report.
In 2020, Europe was 68 percent dependent on oil and 61 percent on natural gas, corresponding to 39 percent of its primary energy consumption. This situation is expected to remain similar in the near-term future.
“Ukraine war has strongly impacted our forecast for natural gas consumption in Europe. It is now 170 Gm3 in 2050, versus 310 Gm3 in our last year’s edition, reflecting our analysis that the war will have an accelerating effect on the energy transition in Europe. The strong decrease in demand will mean that total imports will decrease by 61 percent for oil and 64 percent for natural gas from 2020 to 2050.”