Chapter 4:
Electricity Source Trends
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%).
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.
Context
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.
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.
Context
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.
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.
Context
In 2022, gas power accounted for 20% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 557 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.
Context
In 2022, hydro power generation accounted for 10% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 283 TWh.
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%.
Context
In 2022, nuclear accounted for 22% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 613 TWh.
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.
Context
In 2022, bioenergy accounted for 6% of the EU’s electricity production, with a total output of 167 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.
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