Consumption of electricity from RES increased but percentage still low

In 2020, renewable energy sources (RES) made up 37 per cent of gross electricity consumption in the EU, up from 34 per cent in 2019, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Cyprus is rather low in the list of EU member states, with only 12 per cent of its gross electricity consumption coming from renewable energy sources in 2020.

However that share has increased from 10 per cent in 2019 and from 9 per cent in 2018.

The share was only marginally above 0 per cent when Cyprus entered the EU in 2004. The share passed above the 1 per cent mark in 2010 and has been steadily increasing since, to 3 per cent in 2011, 5 per cent in 2012, almost 7 per cent in 2013 and 2014, 8 per cent in 2015 and around 9 per cent between 2016 and 2018.

Among the EU Member States, more than 70 per cent of electricity consumed in 2020 was generated from renewable sources in Austria (78 per cent) and Sweden (75 per cent). The generation of electricity from renewable sources was also high and accounted for more than half of the electricity consumed in Denmark (65 per cent), Portugal (58 per cent), Croatia and Latvia (both 53 per cent).

At the other end of the scale, the share of electricity from renewable sources was 15 per cent or less in Malta (10 per cent), Hungary and Cyprus (both 12 per cent), Luxembourg (14 per cent) and Czechia (15 per cent).

Wind and hydropower accounted for over two-thirds of the total electricity generated from renewable sources (36 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively). The remaining one-third of electricity came from solar power (14 per cent), solid biofuels (8 per cent) and other renewable sources (8 per cent).

Solar power is the fastest-growing source: in 2008, it only accounted for 1 per cent of the electricity consumed in the EU.