Renewable energy consumed in the EU keeps growing, but not as fast as it should to meet 2030 targets.
Renewable energy made up 24.5% of EU energy use last year, a new record, but still far from the target set for 2030. Spain is the only country among the bloc’s four largest economies to stand above EU average. Among EU countries, Sweden used the most energy coming from renewables. Its main sources were solid biofuels, hydropower and wind.
Neighbouring Finland is second, with 50.8% of its energy coming from renewables, followed by another nordic country, Denmark, with 44.9% Albania stands out as the EU candidate country with the highest rate at over 46%. The lowest shares were recorded in Luxembourg (11.6%), Belgium (14.7%) and Malta (15.1%).
WHERE IN EUROPE IS RENEWABLE ENERGY USE GROWING FASTEST?
On the other hand, the Mediterranean island nation is one of the few European countries that raised their renewable energy use by over 10% in the past decade.
The others are Denmark (+15.61%), Sweden (+15.24%), Estonia (+14.82%), Albania (14.77%), Cyprus (+11.07%) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (+11.69%). Croatia (0.23%), Romania (0.92%) and North Macedonia (0.65%) reported the lowest growth rates, while renewable use went down in Kosovo (-0.76%), Moldova (-3.17%) and Montenegro (-3.13%).
The 2023 result is a new EU record, up 7% compared to 10 years ago – but it remains 18 points shy of the 42.5% target set for 2030. Reaching that goal requires an annual growth of 2.6%, while the average year-on-year increase in the last decade has only been 0.79%.