Among the EU Member States, about 34 per cent of electricity consumed in 2019 was made up of renewable energy sources, according to the latest Eurostat’s report, which is 2 per cent more than in 2018.
Following the announcement of the European Green Deal, Europe has the ambitious goal of becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. As a consequence, the amount of renewable energy sources must continuously grow and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the diversification of energy supplies and the era of reduced dependency on fossil fuel have already begun.
On the top of production stand, wind and hydropower energy accounted for over two-thirds of the total electricity generated from renewable sources, 35 per cent each. They are followed by solar power in the third place with 13 per cent, solid biofuels with 8 per cent and other renewable sources produced the remainder 9 per cent.
Solar power is the fastest-growing source, in 2008 it only accounted for only 1 per cent, now the 13 per cent means that the growth in electricity from solar power has been dramatic, rising from just 7.4 terawatts-hour (TWh) in 2008 to 125.7 TWh in 2019.
Among the Member States, the share of electricity from renewable energy sources was the highest in Austria (75 per cent) and in Sweden (71 per cent). Also Central and Eastern Europe did a good job and the consumption of electricity from renewable sources was also high in Latvia (53 per cent), Croatia (49,8 per cent), Romania (41,7 per cent), Slovenia (32 per cent), Bulgaria (23 per cent) and 22 per cent was achieved by Estonia and Slovakia. The rest of the region belongs to the end of the scale: the share of electricity from renewable sources was under 20 per cent and Hungary was the file-closer at 10 per cent.
The overall share of energy from renewable sources and its consumption was the highest in Iceland and Norway within the continent and among the EU Member States Sweden the one who leads the board. The EU all together achieved an average of 20 per cent and from the CEE region Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania and Romania belong to the leading group, with Slovenia and Bulgaria following closely. Again, Hungary and Poland are the last ones within the region.
