According to Eurostat, the share of renewable energy sources in the EU’s gross electricity consumption increased by 4.1 percentage points (pp) in 2023, reaching 45.3%. This represents the largest growth seen since 2004, surpassing past records reached in 2022 (+3.5 pp) and 2020 (+3.3 pp). The main renewable sources of the total electricity generated were as follows: wind (38.5%), hydro (28.2%), and solar (20.5%), while solid biofuels and other renewable sources accounted for 6.2% and 6.6%, respectively. However, solar has become the fastest growing source within the region, registering an increase of over 30 times its production in 2008 (7.4 TWh) reaching a total of 252.1 TWh in 2023.
The countries with the highest renewable electricity consumption were Austria (87.8% mostly hydro), Sweden (87.5% mostly hydro and wind), and Denmark (79.4%, mostly wind). The countries that achieved shares above 50% were Portugal (63.0%), Croatia (58.8%), Spain (56.9%), Latvia (54.3%) and Finland (52.4%). Finally, the countries where the share of electricity from renewable sources was of less than 20% were Malta (10.7%), Czechia (16.4%), Luxembourg (18.0%) and Hungary (19.5%).
Overall, renewables accounted for 24.55% of the EU’s final energy consumption in 2024, including 10.8% in transport and 26.2% in heating and cooling.