European Commission - Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union

Unit E5: Energy

European Commission - Eurostat
Unit ESTAT.E.5: Energy
L-2920 Luxembourg

This dataset covers the indicator for monitoring progress towards renewable energy targets of the Europe 2020 strategy implemented by Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED I) and the Fit for 55 strategy uner the Green Deal implemented by Directive (EU) 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED II).

Data until 2020 are calculated on the basis of RED I, while data for 2021 follow RED II. Due to the change of legal basis, a break in series occurs between 2020 and 2021. Readers are encouraged to analyse the differences between both Directives (RED I and RED II), the energy sector and all national specificities before drawing any conclusions from the comparison of year 2021 with previous time series. The SHARES Manual provides details on the methodology used for the calculation of the share of renewables.

Hydro is normalised (averaged over a number of years to smooth out the effects of climatic variation) and excluding pumping. Wind is also normalised (and from 2021 onwards as per RED II separately for on-shore and off-shore). Solar includes solar photovoltaics and solar thermal power generation. All other renewables include electricity generation from gaseous and liquid biofuels, renewable municipal waste, geothermal, and tide, wave & ocean. Only electricity produced from compliant liquid biofuels can be accounted. For 2021 onwards (as per RED II), also solid and gaseous biofuels combusted in installations above a certain threshold need to comply with sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions saving criteria. Renewable energy sources used for heating and cooling include solar thermal, geothermal energy, ambient heat captured by heat pumps for heating (and from 2021 onwards, renewable cooling, as per RED II), solid, liquid and gaseous biofuels, and the renewable part of waste. Only heat produced from compliant liquid biofuels can be accounted for. From 2021 onwards (as per RED II), solid and gaseous biofuels combusted in installations above a certain threshold need to comply with sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions saving criteria. RED II modifies the multipliers for the use of renewable electricity in different means of transport.

The calculation is based on data collected in the framework of Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics and complemented by specific supplementary data transmitted by national administrations to Eurostat.

In some countries the statistical systems are not yet fully developed to meet all requirements of RED I or RED II, in particular with respect to ambient heat captured from the environment by heat pumps, renewable cooling or sustainability of solid and gaseous biofuels.

This is a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator. It has been chosen for the assessment of the progress towards the objectives and targets of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. The data collection covers the full spectrum of the Member States of the European Union. Time series starts in the year 2004.

 The share of energy from renewable sources is calculated for four indicators:

• Transport (RES-T)
• Heating and Cooling (RES-H&C)
• Electricity (RES-E)
• Overall RES share (RES)

More details are available in the SHARES tool manual. In addition, more information (like detailed calculations used to obtain the results) are available in the Excel and zip file in the SHARES section.

In particular, for RES-E it is possible to obtain results higher than 100%. This is due to the definition of the calculation, where the numerator ‘gross final consumption of electricity from renewable sources’ is defined as the gross electricity production from renewable sources. The denominator ‘gross final consumption of electricity’ is, for the purpose of the calculations in the SHARES tool, defined as gross electricity production from all energy sources plus total imports of electricity minus total exports of electricity. Therefore, if a country produces more electricity from renewable sources than total electricity it consumes, the RES-E ratio would be higher than 100% (e.g. Norway).

The result indicator is expressed as the percentage. Basic data on energy quantities are in fuel specific units and for the purpose of calculation converted to common energy units (e.g. ktoe). Basic data are available in the SHARES section of the website.

These indicators refer to the calendar year.

The accuracy of the basic data depends on the quality of the national statistical systems and may vary from country to country.

Medium

Data is submitted on the basis of a harmonised system, originating from data harmonised on international level (see for more details metadata on annual energy statistics). The accuracy of the basic data depends on the quality of the national statistical systems and may vary from country to country. In several countries and for most energy commodities data provision by the companies is required by law. However, emerging liberalisation process in some countries may to some extent negatively affect accuracy in some cases. From time to time detailed surveys targeted to single sub- items (e.g. Wood consumption in households) are carried out to improve the methodology.

In some countries statistical systems are not yet fully developed to monitor all energy from renewable sources. This concerns mostly ambient heat captured by heat pumps. 

(See the description of Eurostat quality grades)

If in some specific cases the information transmitted in the SHARES questionnaire is not reliable, the unreliable(U) flag could be used. However, because most of the data used for shares come from annual data, the additional data is very limited. Only in cases where the U flag is extensively used in the publication of the underlying annual data, could the U flag be used as well in SHARES.

National Administrations competent for energy statistics (National Statistical Institutes, Ministries, Energy Agencies and Professional Associations)

Every year

T+1 year

All EU MS

All EU MS

> 10 years

> 4 data points

Statistics explained article on Renewable energy statistics and news items available here.

Please consult free data on-line or refer to contact details.

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/energy/database

Internet address: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Statistics Explained Energy

DG ENERGY – Renewable energy

Statistics Explained: Renewable energy statistics

Detailed results in the format of MS Excel files (SHARES tool detailed results in SHARES section)

Detailed methodology description for this indicators is available in the SHARES tool manual in the SHARES section of Eurostat's website.