{"id":717474,"date":"2026-01-24T11:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/717474\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T11:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:47:11","slug":"green-electricity-which-eu-countries-are-using-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/717474\/","title":{"rendered":"Green electricity: Which EU countries are using the most?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By&nbspAlessio Dell’Anna<\/a>&nbsp&&nbspL\u00e9a Becquet<\/b><\/p>\n

\n Published on 24\/01\/2026 – 18:00 GMT+1
\n \u2022Updated
\n 12:33\n <\/p>\n

Austria tops the EU for renewable electricity use, with the highest share of power coming from green sources.<\/p>\n

According to Eurostat<\/strong><\/a>, the country placed first with nearly a 90% green electricity use rate, boosted by its 16 hydroelectric power plants.<\/p>\n

Sweden comes a close second at 88%, powered mainly by wind and water, while another Nordic country, Denmark, follows third with 80%, thanks to its extensive onshore and offshore wind farm network.<\/p>\n

Rates significantly over 50% were also registered in Portugal (66%), Spain (60%) and Croatia (58%), while Italy and France placed in the bottom half, 18th and 21st respectively in the EU.<\/p>\n

The lowest proportions of green electricity use were found in Malta (11%), the Czech Republic (18%), Luxembourg (20.5%), Hungary and Cyprus (24%).<\/p>\n

These figures cover all electricity coming from renewable sources, including that imported from abroad.<\/p>\n

Green electricity use across the European Union has surged over the past two decades.<\/p>\n

In 2004, it accounted for just 16% of total electricity consumption. Some 10 years later, that figure climbed to nearly 29%, and today it stands at 47.5%.<\/p>\n

Will solar overtake hydro as the main green electricity source?<\/p>\n

Wind energy currently accounts for the largest share of renewable sources used to produce electricity, with 38% of the total, followed by hydro at 26%. <\/p>\n

The fastest growing one, however, is solar, which went from just 1% in 2008 to over 23% in 2024, with 304 TWh.<\/p>\n

Bruegel’s energy expert Ben McWilliams told Europe in Motion that “it is almost certain that solar will overtake hydro in the next few years”.<\/p>\n

“Developers continue to build solar plants at a record pace<\/strong><\/a>, whilst hydro deployment does not increase,” he said, adding that the more solar Europe can install, the better for energy security.<\/p>\n

“Every new solar panel reduces oil, gas and coal dependency, and these dependencies are the true threats to European energy security,” McWilliams said.<\/p>\n

EU’s solar reliance on China not a long-term issue, say experts<\/p>\n

Although the vast majority of solar panels installed in the EU are made in China, McWilliams ruled out the idea that it makes Europe more fragile amid geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n

“Solar panels are a stock not flow; once the EU has installed a panel from China, it is there forever,” he said. ” If \u2014 for whatever reasons \u2014 solar panel imports from China stopped, it would just slow the build-out of new solar and supply would grow elsewhere (including domestically) over a two-three year period.”<\/p>\n

According to Solar Power Europe, there are currently 166 companies<\/strong><\/a> in the EU active in the photovoltaic, or light energy, chain.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of them are in Germany, although the most solar energy capacity per capita<\/strong> <\/a>is produced in the Netherlands, with around 1,044 W yearly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By&nbspAlessio Dell’Anna&nbsp&&nbspL\u00e9a Becquet Published on 24\/01\/2026 – 18:00 GMT+1 \u2022Updated 12:33 Austria tops the EU for renewable electricity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2814,1312,2000,299,5187,72716,5373,5374,5440],"class_list":{"0":"post-717474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-data","9":"tag-electricity","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-eurostat","14":"tag-green-energy","15":"tag-solar-energy","16":"tag-solar-power"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115949918246542872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}