Renewable energy share across Europe increased in 2012

摘要

According to first estimations by EurObserv'ER the renewable energy share (RES) of gross final energy consumption in Europe increased from 13.1 % in 2011 to 14.4 % in 2012. The leading countries when it comes to high portions of renewable energies are those with comparatively many hydropower plants. Sweden, Finland, Latvia and Austria are the top 4 countries in this comparative study, with RES of above 30%. With its 20-20-20 plan the European Union decided to increase the average RES up to 20 % of the gross final energy consumption by the year 2020. Besides the very high RES of states like Austria, the average increase of the use of renewable energy seems to be going well. According to the EurObserv'ER study nearly all European states surpassed their quota set for 2012. There are only some outliers, where the goals are narrowly missed, such as the Netherlands with an increase to 4.5 % instead of the planned 4.7 % or Malta, which is with a RES of 0.3 % still very far from its goal of 10% for 2020.