Renewable Energy Production in Europe

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Renewable, Nuclear, and Conventional Energy Production in Europe in 2018

Germany is the largest energy producing country in Europe. It generates the most renewable and conventional thermal energy, representing 31% and 56% of its overall production respectively. France is the second largest energy European producer and by far the largest nuclear energy provider: 71% of its production is based on nuclear fission to generate heat.

Renewable energy is energy that comes from resources that are naturally replenished such as sunlight, wind, water, and geothermal heat. Unlike fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas and coal, or nuclear power sources such as uranium and plutonium, renewable energy regenerates naturally in a short period of time.

Norway had an electricity production almost entirely made up of renewable energy (98%). This makes Norway the second largest producer of this energy type in Europe. Interestingly, most of the renewable energy is produced by hydro power that take up 95% and only 3% by wind. In contrast, twelve European countries were reported to produce less than 20% of their energy with renewable resources in 2018: Malta (0%), Hungary (5%), Estonia (6%), Czechia (7%), Cyprus (9%), Ukraine (9%), Poland (10%), Netherlands (13%), Bulgaria (17%), Belgium (18%), Slovakia (19%), and France (19%).

Note: Energy production is mapped to the area of the circles. The outer circle serves as reference to the largest producer overall (main panel with moon charts) and per energy type (small multiples on the right) which is Germany in all cases except nuclear energy production.