Green electricity: Is Europe's renewable energy boom slowing down?
More than half of the EU's electricity comes from renewable sources; however, large gaps remain between countries.
As of the second quarter of 2026, renewable energy sources accounted for 54.1% of electricity generated across the European Union, according to recent Eurostat data. While this is a slight decrease from the same period in 2025, it marks an increase from January 2026 when the share stood at 41%. Overall, renewable electricity generation grew by 2.8% year-on-year, while total electricity generation increased by 3.2%. Gas-fired generation, however, rose by 3.9% during the same period.
The surge in renewable energy sources can be attributed to the rapid expansion of wind and solar capacity and a shift away from Russian gas following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the subsequent energy insecurity. From early 2023, renewables started contributing more significantly to electricity generation, saving the EU tens of billions in potential gas and coal purchases.
Solar remains the dominant contributor, making up 41.6% of electricity generation in the EU, up from 37% this time last year. Wind follows at 27.7%, and hydro-power at 22.6%.
However, the growth in renewables appears to be slowing, in part because many EU countries are already operating on higher clean-energy baselines. Latvia leads the way, generating 97.7% of its electricity from renewables, mainly through hydro and solar energy. Denmark and Croatia also have high percentages, with 94% and 92.2% of their electricity generated from renewables, respectively.
On the other end, Slovakia generates only 19.8% of its electricity from renewables, relying heavily on nuclear power (around 70%) and fossil fuels.
While renewables contribute significantly to the EU's electricity generation, they make up only 26.2% of all energy use, including heating and transport. The EU aims to have renewables account for 42.5% of all energy use by 2030, with an ambitious target of increasing this to 45%. This requires EU countries to intensify their efforts to meet the target, which would need a 16 percentage point increase in five years.
Sweden, Finland, and Denmark currently have the highest share of green energy in total energy consumption, but other countries like Belgium, Slovakia, and Ireland lag behind. Experts are concerned about the current pace, citing infrastructure bottlenecks and skepticism in some member states as challenges to achieving the EU's climate neutrality goal by 2050.
Written by urgent.news from Euronews's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
