Nearly half of the EU’s 2024 electricity consumption came from renewables

Brussels – Electricity consumption in the European Union is becoming increasingly green. In 2024, renewable energy sources accounted for 47.5 per cent of gross electricity consumption in member states, an increase of 2.1 percentage points over the previous year. This trend means that, at the time of writing, electricity from renewable sources may already have overtaken that generated from fossil fuels. 

Over the last 20 years, according to Eurostat data, the share of electricity from renewable sources has grown almost exponentially. It stood at 15.9 per cent in 2004, rose to 28.6 per cent in 2014, and jumped to 47.5 per cent in the following ten years. In essence, it has tripled over the past 20 years. Wind energy is by far the largest contributor, accounting for 38 per cent of the total. This is followed by hydroelectric power at 26.4 per cent and solar energy at 23.4 per cent. Solid biofuels and other renewable sources account for 5.8 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively. Solar energy is the fastest-growing source: in 2008, it accounted for only 1 per cent of total renewable electricity. Since then, it has grown sharply from just 7.4  terawatt hours (TWh) in 2008 to 304 TWh in 2024.

The renewable energy leaders are Austria, where 90.1 per cent of electricity was generated from renewable sources, mainly hydroelectric power, Sweden, where the contribution is 88.1 per cent, thanks mainly to hydropower and wind, and Denmark, which has reached 79.7 per cent of electricity from renewable sources, thanks in particular to wind. Among those that have already achieved at least 50 per cent of “clean” electricity consumption, in order are Portugal (65.8 per cent), Spain (59.7 per cent), Croatia (58.0 per cent), Latvia (55.5 per cent), Finland (54.3 per cent), Germany (54.1 per cent), Greece (51.2 per cent), and the Netherlands (50.5 per cent). 

At the other end of the scale, the share of electricity from renewables was less than 25 per cent in Malta, which comes in last with just 10.7 per cent, Czechia (17.9 per cent), Luxembourg (20.5 per cent), Hungary and Cyprus (both 24.1 per cent), and Slovakia (24.9 per cent).  In Italy, it was 40.6 per cent.