2.2 What do we produce in the EU?

The production of energy in the EU is spread across a range of different energy sources: solid fossil fuels, natural gas, crude oil, nuclear energy and renewable energy (such as hydro, wind and solar energy).

Renewable energy (30 % of total EU energy production) was the largest contributing source to energy production in the EU in 2017. Nuclear energy (28 %) was the second largest source, followed by solid fuels (19 %), natural gas (14 %) and crude oil (10 %).

However, the production of energy is very different from one Member State to another. The significance of nuclear energy is particularly high in France (79 % of total national energy production), Belgium (74 %) and Slovakia (63 %). Renewable energy is the main source of energy produced in a number of Member States, with over 90 % (of the energy produced within the country) in Malta, Latvia, Cyprus, Portugal and Lithuania. Solid fossil fuels have the highest importance in Poland (79 %), Estonia (73 %), Greece (61 %) and Czechia (57 %), while natural gas is the main source of energy produced in the Netherlands (80 %). Crude oil is the major source of energy produced in Denmark (44 %) and the United Kingdom (41 %).