Europe is already using something like 90% of our hydro electricity potential.
So far, countries either:
- added renewable energies on top of existing fossil fuel based power generation (gas, coal)
- added renewable energies and replaced coal with gas (US for instance)
Making solar panels require massive amount of energy. If built in China, these panels are made with electricity from coal. They don't have a great C02 budget.
Today's solar panels are efficient enough that even if they are produced using electricity from coal, by the end of their life, they've reduced CO2 emissions by more than what the coal produced to manufacture them.
