Over the past decade, Europe has been shifting towards renewable energy sources for electricity generation. With the war in Ukraine threatening energy security, due to a long-time dependency on Russian energy, and legal commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Europe and the European Union (EU) in particular, are mobilizing the industry, research and innovation to bring about a larger share of renewable sources to the energy mix. In 2021, wind and solar energy have been the main drivers of the transition towards renewables, accounting for 19% of the EU’s electricity generation. However, nuclear energy is the largest single source of electricity generation in the EU and across Europe, despite declining over the past couple of decades.
1. Electricity sources by country
Statistical data from Electricity Maps, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Eurostat reveals that, while many countries have been making progress in their energy transition away from fossil fuels, nearly half of European countries are still dependent on them as their primary source of electricity generation. With vast differences per country, coal, hydro, natural gas, nuclear, wind and oil are the major energy sources powering Europe.
Portugal, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Albania, Georgia and Montenegro are mostly powered by hydro. Spain, Lithuania and Denmark get their electricity from wind power, whereas France, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Ukraine are producing electricity from nuclear power.
While coal makes up more than 34% of Germany’s electricity production, wind energy comes in second at 25%. Other nations relying on nuclear for electricity generation include Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Turkey. Of all European nations, Poland is the biggest carbon emitter for their electricity production, while Sweden registers the lowest emissions. Cyprus is the only country in Europe still using oil to generate electricity.
2. Electricity generation by source
A decade ago, more than a quarter of Europe’s electricity was produced using coal. Since then, solar and wind generation have doubled to replace declining coal use. In the EU, the expansion of wind and solar generation to produce electricity registered an increase of 8% in 2011 all the way to 19% in 2021. In the same year, the bloc registered 25% of electricity generated based on nuclear, followed by 20% on natural gas, 14% on coal, 13% on hydro and wind and 6% on solar. Moving on to 2022, the transition to renewables made significant progress as reveled by the 2023 report from the think tank Ember, which states that solar and wind power (22%) overtook natural gas (20%) in electricity generation for the first time ever.
3. Renewables gaining pace
In 2011, fossil fuels — oil, natural gas, and coal — made up 49% of the EU’s electricity production while renewable energy sources only made up 18%. A decade later, renewable energy sources are coming close to matching fossil fuels, with renewables making up 32% of the EU’s electricity generation compared to 36% of fossil fuels in 2021. This figure is set to increase by 2030 as a majority of EU member states backed a 40% target for renewable energies like wind and solar. The target, however, is a far cry from the 45% goal originally tabled by the European Commission and supported by Parliament in 2022, in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
