In the European Union (EU), 47% of electricity now comes from renewable sources like wind and solar, a new record according to a report from the think tank Ember. This is a far higher percentage than in other countries, including the United States and China, where about two-thirds of energy comes from fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gas.
For the first time in 2024, solar energy surpassed coal in generating electricity across all 27 EU member states, while natural gas production of electricity fell for the fifth year running.
Climate change experts are encouraged by Europe’s continued push toward cleaner energy, especially as the new U.S. administration pushes for increased fossil fuel use.
“Fossil fuels are losing their grip on EU energy,” said Chris Rosslowe, the lead author of Ember’s ‘European Electricity Review’. “Back in 2019, at the start of the European Green Deal, few believed the energy transition would be where it is today: wind and solar are replacing coal and driving gas into a structural decline.”
The share of electricity produced by renewables jumped to 47% last year compared to 34% in 2019, in large part due to strong growth in solar and wind energy. In 2024, 11% of the EU’s electricity came from solar power, 17% from wind, and 24% from nuclear. The share produced by traditional fossil fuels dropped from 39% in 2019 to 29% in 2024.
These trends do not only concern the EU as a whole; every single member country has seen progress in renewable energy production. Portugal, the Netherlands, and Estonia have led the way, seeing the largest increase over the past five years.
Hungary has been the fastest-growing producer of solar energy, with solar power now contributing 25% of the country’s electricity production, a huge increase from only 4% in 2019. Greece, the former leader in European solar energy, was second with 22% of electricity production coming from solar power, while Spain was just behind with 21%.
When it comes to Europe’s reliance on fossil fuels, over half of the countries in the bloc are either phasing out coal production or reducing its share in energy production to less than 5%.
The improvement over recent years is largely credited to the European Green Deal, passed in 2019. The deal resulted in the EU targeting to become climate neutral — reducing net emissions to zero — by the year 2050. In the shorter term, the EU aimed to cut emissions by 55% by 2030.
Regulations resulting from the legislation helped incentivize greater investment in clean energy and carbon pollution reduction. New climate change regulations are still being passed in the European Commission.
Another factor in the growth of Europe’s clean energy sector has been the Russia-Ukraine war. After Russia’s invasion in February 2022, gas prices soared, forcing European countries reliant on Russian gas to find alternative sources of energy.
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The transition away from coal, gas, and oil has had almost immediate economic benefits as well. It is estimated that Europe’s clean energy transition has led to $61 billion in cost avoidance from fossil fuel imports since 2019.
Pieter de Pous, an energy analyst at think tank E3G, highlighted the impressiveness of Europe’s recent turnaround. He stated that the EU was “a community of coal and steel because those industries were so important.” But now, De Pous adds, it is transforming into a “community of solar and wind power, batteries and smart technologies.”
De Pous argues that higher gas prices and increased clean energy subsidies from the EU are “sending a clear message that [the bloc’s] energy needs are going to be met through clean power, not gas imports.”
This is a stark contrast to what is currently going on in the United States. President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris Agreement aimed to mitigate global warming and its fallout. In an attempt to decrease reliance on foreign energy and fossil fuels, President Trump has pushed to grow fossil fuel production, famously touting that the U.S. should “drill, baby, drill.”
Chris Rosslowe stated that this makes Europe’s renewable energy growth even more important. “It’s about increasing European energy independence, and it’s about showing this climate leadership,” Rosslowe says.
Just last week, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said that “Europe will stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming.”
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Solar panels. Cover Photo Credit: Red Zeppelin.
