Hrvatski
Recent research shows that renewable energy sources are now Europe’s main source of electricity.
Renewable energy sources became the largest source of electricity in the European Union in 2020, beating fossil fuels for the first time. Germany and Spain also individually hit that milestone last year – as did Britain, which officially left the EU in January 2020.
Renewables powered 38 percent of the EU’s electricity last year, according to a report released by energy expert centers Ember and Agora Energiewende. This gives renewable energy a narrow advantage over fossil fuel production, which accounted for 37 percent of European electricity. The remaining quarter comes from nuclear power.
The European Union has recently set a target of roughly halving carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) and almost completely eliminating them by 2050.
Wind and solar energy marked the growth of renewable energy last year, while the growth of other forms of carbon-free energy, such as hydropower, stagnated. Together, wind and solar production recorded a 10 percent increase in 2020.
Taking into account all these trends, European electricity in 2020 was 29 percent cleaner than five years ago.
