Electricity Source Trends | Ember

Data on EU electricity sources in 2022

Data on EU electricity generation from bioenergy, coal, gas, hydro, nuclear, solar and wind in 2022, with an overview of changes and trends over the last two decades.

Context

Solar power produced 7.3% (203 TWh) of EU electricity in 2022. Germany is the biggest generator at 59 TWh (10% of its electricity mix), producing nearly twice as much as the second biggest generation Spain (33 TWh, 12%). 

The Netherlands have the highest percentage share of solar generation in their electricity mix with 14% (17 TWh), ahead of Greece (6.6 TWh, 13%) and Hungary (4.5 TWh, 13%).

Change in 2022

Solar electricity generation in the EU grew by 24% in 2022, from 164 TWh in 2021 to 203 TWh in 2022. This brought solar’s share in the electricity mix to 7.3%, a 1.6 percentage point increase from the previous year (5.7%). The increased solar generation was due to a significant rise in Germany (+9.6 TWh, +20%) as well as substantial increases in Spain (+5.7 TWh, +21%), the Netherlands (+5.8 TWh, +51%), France (+4.3 TWh, +27%) and Poland (+4.1 TWh, +104%). Compared to the previous year, solar generation fell only in Austria (-0.05 TWh, -1.8%) and Slovenia (-0.01 TWh, -2.2%).

January saw the highest year-on-year percentage increase of 58%. May (+32%, +5.9 TWh), July (+32%, +6.5 TWh) and August (+35%, +6.4 TWh) all saw year-on-year increases above 30% and resulted in the largest absolute increases compared to last year.

Long-term trend

Solar generation rose in the overall EU electricity mix from 0% (0.1 TWh) in 2000 to 7.3% (203 TWh) in 2022.

Solar deployment in Germany and Italy drove strong growth in the early 2010, but following that growth fell, declining to nearly zero in 2016. However, solar has been growing at an average annual rate of 11% since the Paris Agreement in 2015. This represents slower growth than the upwards trend between 2000-2015 (+58% annually). 2022 saw a year-on-year increase of 24% (39 TWh). Solar’s market share has grown from 3.5% to 7.3% of EU electricity generation since 2015.

Countries like Hungary, the Netherlands and Cyprus have seen a remarkably quick integration of solar generation into their electricity mix. The share of solar in the Netherlands increased from only 1% (1.1 TWh) to 14% (17 TWh) since 2015. Hungary saw similar growth from 0.5% (0.1 TWh) to 13% (4.5 TWh) in the same period. Just like wind generation, solar has seen broad buy-in across the entire EU and grew in nearly all countries.

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Wind power produced 15% (420 TWh) of EU electricity in 2022. Germany is the biggest generator at 126 TWh (22% of its electricity mix), ahead of Spain (62 TWh, 22%). Denmark has the highest percentage share with 55% of its electricity mix (19 TWh) ahead of Lithuania (38%), Ireland (34%) and Portugal (28%). Wind generation is currently the second largest clean source of electricity in the EU, but is set to continue to grow and surpass nuclear generation.

There are now eight EU countries where wind produces more than 20% of electricity, and 16 countries with more than 10% share.

Change in 2022

EU wind generation rose by 8.6% (+33 TWh), from 387 TWh in 2021 to 420 TWh in 2022. This more than makes up for last year’s fall of 11 TWh, but is still lower than growth in 2015, 2017 and the largest year-on-year increase in 2019 of 47 TWh.

Share of wind power in the electricity mix also grew by 1.6 percentage points, from 13.4% in 2021 to 15% in 2022. The increase in wind power was driven by significant increases in Germany (+11 TWh, 10%) as well as Sweden (+6 TWh, 22%) and Poland (+3.5 TWh, 22%).

Italy, Hungary, Cyprus and Estonia saw some reductions in wind generation, but only with modest absolute falls that did not affect the overall balance of generation across the EU.

Long-term trend

Wind generation has increased by 398 TWh in the last two decades (+1,873%) and has subsequently also risen in the overall electricity mix (from 0.8% of the EU’s electricity mix in 2000 to 15% in 2022). There has been consistent growth in wind generation over the last 20 years with the exception of 2021. This was not a structural decline, but rather caused by bad wind conditions in the first half of the year that resulted in lower than usual generation.

Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, wind has been growing an average of 6.9% annually. This represents a decline of the upwards trend between 2000-2015 (+18.3% annually). However, 2022 saw a year-on-year increase of 8.6% (33 TWh). Wind’s market share has risen from 9.2% to 15% of EU electricity generation since 2015.

This trend is consistent across most of the EU with a few exceptions in countries with Hungary and Cyprus as the only exceptions. Large increases in market share in Lithuania and Luxembourg are mostly explained by their low overall generation.

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Coal power produced 16% (447 TWh) of EU electricity in 2022. Germany is the biggest coal generator (181 TWh, 31% of its electricity mix), while Poland has the highest percentage share at 69%, with a total output of 124 TWh.

Poland, Czechia, Bulgaria and Germany all still produce more than 30% of their electricity from coal. More and more countries in the EU have either phased out or have committed to a phase-out of coal generation.

Change in 2022

EU coal electricity generation rose by 6.7% (28 TWh), from 419 TWh in 2021 to 447 TWh in 2022. This pushed coal’s share in the EU electricity mix from 14.5% in 2021 to 16% in 2022. The increase was largely temporary, as coal met some of the reduction in nuclear and hydro generation. The largest increases were recorded in March and over the summer months. This trend was largely reversed by the Q4 2022. The last four months of the year saw coal generation below 2021 levels.

The rise in coal power was most noticeable in Germany (+17 TWh, +10%) with smaller rises in Italy (+7.2 TWh, +51%) and Bulgaria (+4.3 TWh, +25%). Portugal reduced coal power to near zero (-93%, -0.7 TWh) as it closed its last coal power plant. France, Denmark, Slovenia and Ireland also saw cuts to coal generation. Poland recorded the largest absolute decline with coal falling 2.5 TWh (-2.7%).

Long-term trend

Coal generation has fallen by 353 TWh in the last two decades (-44%), going from 30% of the EU’s electricity mix in 2000 to 16% in 2022.

Despite increases in 2021 and 2022, coal power in 2022 was still 37% below 2015 levels.

Coal’s share has fallen from 25% to 16% of EU electricity generation since 2015.

Every EU country had a smaller share of coal in 2022 than in 2015. The biggest falls in generation share were in Greece (10%, down from 43%), Portugal (0.1%, down from 29%), the Netherlands (13%, down from 36%) and Spain (2.7%, down from 19%).

The use of coal for power generation is set to fall further. Coal phaseout targets, increased generation from wind and solar, as well as a rebound in French nuclear generation will reduce the need for the comparatively expensive fossil fuel.

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In 2022, gas power accounted for 20% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 557 TWh. 

Italy was the largest generator of gas power, producing 141 TWh, which represented 51% of its energy mix, the second largest gas share of any EU country. Malta had the highest percentage of gas power in its energy mix at 84%, with a total output of 1.8 TWh.

Change in 2022

Gas electricity generation in the EU saw a slight increase of 0.8% in 2022 (+4.5 TWh). This brought the share of gas in the EU’s electricity mix to 19.9%, a 0.7 percentage point increase from the previous year (19.2%). Despite the high cost of gas generation in 2022 as the global energy crisis drove up gas prices, several countries still experienced growth.

The largest increases were seen in Spain (+16 TWh, 22%) and France (+9.6 TWh, 29%). Gas generation in these countries likely would not have risen without large losses of nuclear power in France that resulted in lower exports to Spain.

There were small gas power falls in Poland, Greece, Italy and Finland, and a larger fall in the Netherlands (-9.7 TWh, -17%) which saw increased wind and solar power replace gas power.

Long-term trend

Annual gas generation has substantially increased by 225 TWh in the last two decades (+68%). As a result, the share in the electricity mix has increased from 13% in 2000 to 20% in 2022. It is the only fossil fuel that has seen growth over the past two decades. In the same period, coal generation was cut in half.

Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, gas has been growing by an average of 5% annually. This represents an acceleration of the growth trend between 2000-2015 (1.2% annually). The increase in 2022 of only 0.8% is slower than recent trends. The market share of gas has increased from 14% to 20% of EU electricity generation since 2015.

While there are several countries that have reduced their reliance on gas since 2015, some countries with high electricity demand such as Germany, Italy, Spain and France have seen gas generation take a more important role. In Italy, the share of gas in the mix increased from 39% to 51% (+30 TWh), while Germany saw an increase from 10% to 16% (+32 TWh).

Context

In 2022, hydro power generation accounted for 10% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 283 TWh.

Sweden was the largest generator of hydro power, producing 69 TWh (40.2% of its electricity mix), ahead of France (46 TWh, 9.8%) and Austria (36 TWh, 56%). Austria’s share of 56% was the highest share of hydro power in its electricity mix among EU countries.

Change in 2022

A drought-stricken summer in 2022 meant that EU hydro generation fell to the lowest level since at least 2000. It fell by 19%, with a total decrease of 66 TWh from 349 TWh to 283 TWh. As a result, the share of hydro power in the electricity mix fell by 2% from 12% in 2021 to 10% in 2022.

The Alps and Iberia were particularly affected by the drought. Italy, France and Spain all saw hydro output fall by more than 10 TWh. This represented reductions of 34% (Italy), 23% (France) and 37% (Spain). However, the Nordic region was also impacted. Lithuania (+0.07 TWh) and Latvia (+0.06 TWh) were the only EU countries to see any rise in hydro generation, but only recorded small increases.

Long-term trend

Hydro capacity has remained almost unchanged since 2000, with very little added or closed since. The only factor impacting generation is precipitation. Hydro generation in 2022 was 19% lower (-67 TWh) than in 2000. The 67 TWh fall is nearly equivalent to the fall just seen in 2022 of 66 TWh. Despite the large falls in 2022, hydro’s 10% share of generation was not substantially lower than the market share in 2000 of 13%.

Similarly, there have been no structural changes since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Growth from clean sources has largely been concentrated on the build up of wind and solar generation.

Context

In 2022, nuclear accounted for 22% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 613 TWh. 

France was the largest generator of electricity from nuclear generation, producing 297 TWh. It is also the country with the highest share of nuclear power in its electricity mix at 63%.

Change in 2022

In 2022, nuclear generation in the EU saw its largest ever year-on-year decline, falling 16%, a total of 119 TWh compared to 2021 (from 732 TWh to 613 TWh). Consequently, the share of nuclear generation in the electricity mix fell by 3.5 percentage points to 21.9% from 25.4% in 2021. Spain (+1.9 TWh, 3.3%), Finland (+1.5 TWh, 6.2 %) and the Netherlands (+0.4 TWh, 9.4%) saw the largest increases in 2022, although these were still relatively modest.

The closure of nuclear plants in Germany led to a decline in generation of 33 TWh (-47%). The heatwave in the summer of 2022 saw reduced output from some French nuclear plants, due to high temperatures in rivers used for cooling. Planned maintenance reduced nuclear output further. Consequently, French nuclear generation fell by 82 TWh (22%), a reduction of nearly 3% of the EU’s total annual electricity generation.

Long-term trend

Between 2000 and 2022, nuclear generation fell by 29%. Likewise, its share in the EU electricity mix fell from 33% in 2000 to 22% in 2022. This is due to near-zero nuclear plants coming online, a wave of closures of older nuclear power plants and widespread temporary outages of existing French power plants in 2022.

Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, EU nuclear generation has been falling an average of 3.5% annually. This represents an acceleration of the downwards trend between 2000-2015 (-0.6% annually). 2022 saw a substantial decrease of 16% (119 TWh). Nuclear’s market share has fallen from 27% to 22% of EU electricity generation since 2015.

Context

In 2022, bioenergy accounted for 6% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 167 TWh. 

Germany was the largest generator of electricity from bioenergy in the EU by a considerable margin, producing 47 TWh, or 8.1% of its energy mix. Italy was the second largest generator, producing 18 TWh. Estonia had the highest percentage of bioenergy power generation at 30%, with a total output of 2.5 TWh.

Change in 2022

Bioenergy generation in the EU declined slightly by 1.6% (-2.8 TWh) in 2022. This was the first fall in EU bioenergy electricity generation since 1996. However, it comes after a moderate rise in 2021 (+4.2 TWh, +6.7%).

Poland, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands saw the largest absolute reductions in generation. Estonia saw an increase of 41%, resulting in a small rise of 0.7 TWh. Higher generation in France, Finland and Germany led to an additional small offset that prevented an even larger EU-wide reduction.

Long-term trend

Bioenergy generation has increased more than fivefold since 2000, from 30 TWh to 167 TWh in 2022, rising from around 1.2% of the EU’s electricity mix in 2000 to 6% in 2022. However, the rise has slowed dramatically. Generation in 2022 was only 12% higher than in 2015.

Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, bioenergy generation has been growing an average of 1.6% annually. This is significantly slower than the average annual EU growth rate of bioenergy of 11% between 2000-2015. Bioenergy’s market share has seen a slight increase from 5.2% to 6% of EU electricity generation since 2015. Estonia has seen the biggest increase in market share since 2015, with bioenergy rising from 8% to 30% of Estonia’s electricity mix.

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