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It has recently been reported that in 2010 renewable energy sources provided 12.4% of overall energy consumption within the European Union, up from 11.7% in 2009.
Sweden sourced the largest amount of its energy from renewable energy at a total of 47.9%. Latvia, Finland, and Austria also did well, using renewable energy to contribute over 30% of their electricity consumption. Malta (0.4%), Luxembourg (2.8%), the UK (3.2%), and the Netherlands (3.8%) performed the worst.
As part of the 2009 Directive on renewable energy EU member countries set individual renewable energy targets that they aim to achieve by 2020, however as it stands not all of the countries are on course to achieve these targets. A list compiled by Eurostat shows the share that renewable energy made of total energy consumption in countries across the EU, along with the 2020 target.
The figures show that all EU countries increased the share of total energy consumption created from renewable sources between 2006 and 2010. Estonia increased their renewable energy capacity by the most, from 16.1% in 2006 to 24.3% in 2010.
Share of renewable energy (in % of gross final energy consumption)
Country 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2020 target
Malta 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 10.0
Luxembourg 1.4 2.7 2.8 2.8 2.8 11.0
United Kingdom 1.5 1.8 2.3 2.9 3.2 15.0
Cyprus 2.5 3.1 4.1 4.6 4.8 13.0
Belgium 2.7 3.0 3.3 4.6 : 13.0
Netherlands 2.7 3.1 3.4 4.1 3.8 14.0
Ireland 2.9 3.3 3.9 5.1 5.5 16.0
Hungary 5.1 5.9 6.6 8.1 : 13.0
Italy 5.8 5.7 7.1 8.9 10.1 17.0
Czech Republic 6.5 7.4 7.6 8.5 9.2 13.0
Slovakia 6.6 8.2 8.4 10.4 9.8 14.0
Germany 6.9 9.0 9.1 9.5 11.0 18.0
Greece 7.0 8.1 8.0 8.1 9.2 18.0
Poland 7.0 7.0 7.9 8.9 9.4 15.0
EU27* 9.0 9.9 10.5 11.7 12.4 20.0
Spain 9.0 9.5 10.6 12.8 13.8 20.0
France** 9.6 10.2 11.1 11.9 : 23.0
Bulgaria 9.6 9.3 9.8 11.9 13.8 16.0
Croatia 13.8 12.4 12.2 13.2 14.6 20.0
Slovenia 15.5 15.6 15.1 18.9 19.8 25.0
Estonia 16.1 17.1 18.9 23.0 24.3 25.0
Denmark 16.5 18.0 18.8 20.2 22.2 30.0
Lithuania 16.9 16.6 17.9 20.0 19.7 23.0
Romania 17.1 18.3 20.3 22.4 23.4 24.0
Portugal 20.8 22.0 23.0 24.6 24.6 31.0
Austria 26.6 28.9 29.2 31.0 30.1 34.0
Finland 29.9 29.5 31.1 31.1 32.2 38.0
Latvia 31.1 29.6 29.8 34.3 32.6 40.0
Sweden 42.7 44.2 45.2 48.1 47.9 49.0
Norway 60.6 60.5 62.0 65.1 61.1 67.5
SOURCE: Eurostat
NOTES: * - EU27 aggregate contain estimates of missing data
** - France métropolitaine, excluding the four overseas departments (French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion)
: - Data not available
By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com