Brussels –The share of electricity generated from renewable sources in the European Union fell by 0.2 percentage points in the second quarter of 2026 from the same period in 2025. Between April, May and June, renewables accounted for 54.1 per cent of the electricity generated in the EU, compared with 54.3 per cent in the same quarter of 2025. However, this figure represents an increase of 8.6 percentage points from the first quarter of 2026, when the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources stood at 45.5 per cent. The data come from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union.
The warm season brings a shift in the main renewable source for electricity generation. In the second quarter of 2026, solar power accounted for the largest share of renewable electricity, reaching 41.6 per cent, up from 37.0 per cent in the same period of 2025. Wind power came second, accounting for 27.7 per cent, followed by hydroelectric power at 22.6 per cent. The remaining share was generated by renewable fuels (7.7 per cent) and by geothermal and other sources (0.4 per cent).
The picture was completely different in the first three months of the year, when wind power was the main source of renewable electricity in the EU. In the first quarter of 2026, wind power accounted for 44.9 per cent of electricity generated from renewable sources, compared with 42.3 per cent in the same quarter of 2025.
At the national level, Lithuania tops the European rankings for the share of electricity generated from renewable sources, with it accounting for almost the entire national electricity production. In the Baltic country, 97.7 per cent of electricity was generated from renewable sources, mainly hydroelectric and solar power. Denmark follows, with 94.3 per cent, where wind power predominates, while Croatia is in third place, with 92.2 per cent, driven mainly by hydroelectric power.
Italy ranks slightly above the European average, with 59.6 per cent of its electricity coming from renewable sources. This figure represents an increase of almost 20 percentage points compared with the 40.7 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2026. Thanks to this increase, Italy has risen from sixteenth to twelfth place in the ranking of EU countries by share of electricity generated from renewables.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the ranking were Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Malta. Specifically, Slovakia stood at 19.8 per cent, Czechia at 20.9 per cent, and Malta at 4.5 per cent.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
