In Portugal, 58% of the electricity consumed came from renewables, mainly wind power and hydro

The production and consumption of electricity from renewable energy sources in the European Union (EU) increased between 2020 and 2021, years marked by the pandemic. And, among the Member States, Portugal occupies the fourth position among the countries whose electricity consumption comes mainly from renewable sources.

According to data released by Eurostat, in addition to having increased production by 5%, gross electricity consumption also grew during that period, due to the economic recovery that has been witnessed with the lifting of anti-covid-19 restrictions.

In total, the share of renewable energy sources in gross electricity consumption in the EU increased by just 0.1 percentage points (pp), from 37.4% in 2020 to 37.5% in 2021.

According to the European Statistics Office, wind and hydropower accounted for more than two thirds of the total electricity produced from renewable sources (37% and 32%, respectively) in the EU. The remaining third of the electricity came from photovoltaic and solar thermal energy (15%), solid biofuels (7%) and other renewable sources (8%).

“Solar energy is the fastest growing source: in 2008 it represented only 1% of the electricity consumed in the EU”, notes Eurostat.
Portugal is the fourth country with the highest consumption of “green” electricity

Portugal tops the list in the analysis of electricity consumption from renewable sources among the 27 Member States. According to the data, 58.4% of the total electrical energy consumed in the country came from renewable sources, a value driven by wind and hydro production.

Even so, this figure is not enough to surpass Austria and Sweden, where three quarters of the electricity comes from renewable sources, 76.2% in the case of the country whose capital is Vienna, mainly due to hydroelectric production, and 75.7% and territory from renewable sources. Stockholm, due to hydroelectric and wind production. Denmark ranks third (62.6%), followed by Portugal and then Croatia (53.5%).

At the other end of the scale, the lowest shares of renewable electricity were recorded in Malta (9.7%), Hungary (13.7%), Luxembourg (14.2%), Czech Republic (14.5%) and Cyprus (14.8%).