Share of renewables in EU energy generation falls this year

GOW.uk

In 19 EU countries, the share of renewable energy sources in net electricity generation decreased in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the first quarter of 2024. The largest drops were recorded in Greece (-12.4%), Lithuania (-12.0%) and Slovakia (-10.6%).

According to the Eurostat, 42.5% of net electricity generated in the EU came from renewable energy sources. Compared with the first quarter of 2024, this represents a 4.3% decrease (from 46.8%).

Most of the electricity generated from renewable sources in the first quarter of 2025 came from wind (42.5%), hydro (29.2%) and solar (18.1%), followed by combustible renewable fuels (9.8%) and geothermal energy (0.5%).

European Commission

The significant increase in electricity generation from solar (from 40.9 TWh in the first quarter 2024 to 55 TWh in the first quarter 2025) was not sufficient to compensate for the decrease in hydro and wind production (from 260.5 to 218.5 TWh over the same period).

Among EU countries, in the first quarter of 2025 Denmark had the highest share of renewables in net electricity generated with 88.5%, followed by Portugal (86.6%) and Croatia (77.3%). The lowest shares of renewables were recorded in Czechia (13.4%), Malta (14.4%) and Slovakia (15.1%). 

European Commission

The share of renewables in net electricity production should not be mistaken for the share of renewables in gross electricity consumption, which is the main indicator used to monitor the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The methodologies used to calculate each of them differ. The former (used in this article) is only based on electricity generation, while the latter follows the methodology of the RED and divides electricity generation by electricity consumption.

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