Renewables, in 2022 Italy among leaders in production. But EU imports at 63 percent

Brussels – Lots of energy production from renewable sources, but not much consumption: energy in Europe — whether it’s for transport, homes, or the economy — is less sustainable than one might imagine. That, at least, is the situation as of 2022, as photographed by Eurostat in the newly published annual energy report. Looking at clean energy, in 2022, renewables (43 percent) made the biggest contribution to the EU’s energy production, ahead of nuclear (28 percent), and solid fossil fuels (19 percent). 

However, the push on wind, solar, and biomass has failed to reduce dependence on foreign energy. In 2022, the European Union produced about 37percent of its own energy, while 63 percent was imported, mainly from Russia (21 percent), the United States (11 percent), Norway (10 percent), Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom (7 percent each). 

In addition, turning to consumption, the report shows that the EU does not know what to do with renewables. With energy production from renewables accounting for 43 percent of the total, direct use counts for 12.2 percent of final consumption. To run the country and ensure everyday life in the EU, we rely on the most polluting and climate-impacting traditional sources: petroleum products (36.8 percent), gas (21 percent), and solid fossils (2.4 percent) for total non-clean sources: 60.2 percent of final consumption, proof of a structural problem that is certainly not new.

In this mixed scenario, however, Italy emerges for its leadership in clean energy capacity. In 2022, Italy’s energy production come mainly from renewable sources, which account for 75.2 percent of the total. Crude oil (14.1 percent) and natural gas (7.4 percent) are the other two most common sources of production.

Compared with major eurozone economies, Italy’s figure is better than Germany (50.7 percent), Spain (55.9 percent) and France (26 percent). Italy is also better than the Scandinavian countries, traditionally very attentive to environmental and sustainability issues. Italy’s renewable energy production exceeds that of Denmark (50.9 percent), Sweden (63 percent), and Finland (64.9 percent).

In terms of the share of energy from renewables, it is even better than Greece (68.4 percent), which does not lack sun and wind. Better than Italy in terms of energy production from renewables is Cyprus with 95.5 percent of its energy coming from wind, solar, and biomass. The Baltics also record a better rate of production from renewables than Italy: 99.6 percent in Latvia and 89.5 percent in Lithuania.

Even Italy does not escape the paradox of producing renewables and not using them. Direct use of wind, solar, and biomass energies accounts for 10.1 percent of final consumption, driven by petroleum products (36.9 percent) and gas (28.8 percent).