The EU region’s energy sector is now changing at breakneck speed, albeit out of necessity.
13:49•Updated 13:59
Based on preliminary data, renewable energy production was the leading source of electricity in the EU region last year. The European Commission informs about the matter statistical data unit Eurostat.
Renewable energy production, i.e. wind or solar power, for example, produced approximately 45 percent of the Union’s electricity in 2023. From 2022, the share increased by as much as 12.4 percentage points.
In the same period, the share of electricity produced with fossil fuels dropped by a whopping 19.7 percentage points. In 2023, only 32.5 percent of the EU’s electricity was produced with fossil fuels.
In particular, natural gas and coal are consumed significantly less in the EU than just a few years ago.
Natural gas consumption decreased by 7.4 percent from 2022 to 2023. Coal consumption dropped even more severely: lignite consumption fell by almost a fifth, coal consumption by a quarter.
The consumption of both types of coal is now at its lowest in the EU’s measurement history.
Russia forced the EU to act
According to Eurostat, Russia’s major attack on Ukraine in February 2022 has been the main reason for the acceleration of the energy transition.
As a result of the war, Russian natural gas supplies to the EU region decreased and the reliability of gas and oil supplies weakened in general. The heat and drought that happened in the summer of the same year also weakened the reliability of hydropower.
Among other things, the Repower EU project, which was launched for these reasons, aimed to accelerate the green transition and diversify energy production with investments across the Union. Eurostat sees preliminary data telling about the success of the project.
Last year, nuclear power’s share of electricity production also increased slightly. Whereas in 2022 nuclear power produced 21.6 percent of the EU region’s electricity, in 2023 nuclear power produced 22.8 percent of electricity.
Among other things, Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant started its regular electricity production last year.