Solar the fastest growing European clean power source

The latest numbers released by EU data body Eurostat indicate renewables, including hydropower, contributed 37% of Europe’s gross electricity consumption in 2020, up from 34% a year earlier.

The International Renewable Energy Agency has estimated how much grid-connected solar capacity was installed in Europe at the end of 2020.

Graphic created by Max Hall, using content from freevectormaps.com, for pv magazine

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The latest snapshot of the European renewable energy market in 2020 released by EU statistical body Eurostat has revealed hydropower-heavy Norway and Iceland generated more electricity from renewables than was consumed in their national economies.

The figures, produced by Eurostat today, indicated solar power accounted for 14% of Europe's gross electricity consumption in 2020, as part of a 34% renewables share across the continent to which wind power contributed the biggest proportion, with a 36% slice of the cake.

Solar, Eurostat indicated, is the fastest growing renewable energy source in the market.

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Hydropower helped Norway and Iceland, members of the European Free Trade Association which gives access to the EU single market, boast more than 100% of their gross electricity consumption came from renewable energy generation.

High shares were also recorded in Austria, which drew upon clean energy for 78% of its consumption; Sweden (with 75% renewables); Denmark (65%); Portugal (58%); and Croatia and Latvia (53% each). At the other end of the scale, clean electricity met only 10% of Malta‘s consumption in 2020, Hungary and Cyprus recorded a figure of 12% each, Luxembourg had just 14% clean power, and Czechia just 15%.

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