Research and Development

EU reports about 22% of energy consumed came from renewables in 2021

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EU reports about 22% of energy consumed came from renewables in 2021

The share of gross final energy consumption from renewable sources at the European Union level was 21.8% in 2021, which is a 0.3 percentage point decrease compared with 2020 and well below the 2030 target of 32%.

The EU said countries need to intensify their efforts to stay above the baseline established in Regulation 2018/1999 on the governance of the energy union and climate action and to comply with the required EU trajectory. In addition, in 2021, the European Commission issued its proposal for amending the Renewable Energy Directive, where it aims to increase this target to 40%, and the REPowerEU plan in 2022 upped this target further to 45%.

Sweden still has the highest share of energy from renewable sources. With more than half of its gross final consumption of energy from renewable sources, Sweden (62.6%, relying mostly on a mix of biomass, hydro, wind, heat pumps and liquid biofuels) had the highest share among the EU Member States in 2021, ahead of Finland (43.1%) and Latvia (42.1%) (both using mostly biomass and hydro), Estonia (37.6%, relying mostly on biomass and wind), Austria (36.4%, mostly hydro and biomass) and Denmark (34.7%, mostly biomass and wind).

More than half of the EU Member states are below the EU average. Fifteen of the 27 EU members reported shares below the EU average in 2021: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia. The lowest proportions of renewables were recorded in Luxembourg (11.7%), Malta (12.2%), the Netherlands (12.3%), Ireland (12.5%) and Belgium (13.0%).

Lifting COVID-19 restrictions in 2021 increased energy consumption, which decreased the share of renewables (despite an increase in renewable energy production in absolute terms compared with 2020). In addition, a change in methodology helps explain this development. Data until 2020 are calculated on the basis of Directive 2009/28/EC (RED I), while data for 2021 follow Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED II). Due to the change of legal basis, a break in series occurs between 2020 and 2021.