Eurostat released data on Europes 2018 renewable energy shares last week and the data shows that the share of gross final energy consumption coming from renewable energy sources has reached 18% in 2018, up from 17.5% in 2017. To put this into perspective, Europe has a target of obtaining 20% of its gross final energy consumption from renewable energy sources.
When looking further at the data, it must be noted that 12 countries have reached their 2020 targets. These include Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden.
It is interesting to see how some countries have taken renewable energy and run with it. For example, Sweden is a leader in the EU, meeting 54.6% of its gross final energy consumption with renewable energy.
At the other end, there are four countries that are lagging behind. Germany is 6.6% away from its target, France is 6.4% away, Ireland is 4.9% away, and the UK is 4% short.
