A statement from the European Commission has revealed that the fraction of energy generated from renewable sources in the European Union registered a slight year-on-year drop from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025. According to the commission, green energy contributed to 42.5% of the EU’s energy mix in the first quarter of 2025, a 4.3 percentage point drop compared to Q1 2024. Interestingly, the reduction in wind and hydro energy production was offset by a 14.1 terawatt-hour (TWh) increase in solar energy production.
While both wind and hydro production declined from 260.5 TWh to 218.5 TWh between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, these losses were counterbalanced by solar energy generation, which increased from 40.9 to 55 TWh. Denmark’s renewable energy use surpassed every country in the EU, with green energy accounting for 85% of its net energy generation, while Portugal and Croatia followed at 86.6% and 77.3% respectively.
On the other hand, 19 nations in the regional bloc registered a fall in the share of green energy in their energy mix, mostly due to declines in wind and hydro energy generation. Greece recorded the largest decline in green energy generation at -12.4 percentage points, followed by Lithuania at -12 percentage points and Slovakia at -10.6 percentage points.
Despite a notable reduction in output, wind energy still led the European Union’s green energy generation at 42.5%. Hydropower ranked second at 29.2%, followed by solar, combustible green fuels, and geothermal at 18.1%, 9.8%, and 0.5% respectively. An analysis of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) conducted by the European Commission noted that most EU countries have proclaimed national contributions that conform to the Renewable Energy Directive’s goal of increasing the share of green energy in the European Union’s energy mix to 42.55% by the end of the decade.
While the analysis revealed that present national goals have a 1.5 percentage point gap, it noted that EU member states have provided contributions that indicate their dedication to deploying renewable energy. Still, the analysis noted that the EU could reach the 42.55% goal and maybe even surpass it by 2030, as EU member states had installed nearly 205 gigawatts of clean energy from 2022–2024.
A joint study by think tank Ember, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, E3G, and Beyond Fossil Fuels estimated that 16 EU countries have 1,700 GW of hybrid projects and green energy waiting for grid connections between 2024 and 2025. Outdated policies and planning processes are largely to blame for the grid integration delays that have resulted in such a bottleneck.
Overhauling grid connection policies to eliminate these delays could unlock massive unused capacity and accelerate renewable energy deployment across the EU. Tapping into this backlog would allow member states to make better use of clean energy infrastructure that is already in place. Ultimately, removing these bottlenecks could play a key role in helping the EU reach its ambitious green energy targets and achieve energy independence.
This rapid uptake of renewable energy in Europe opens significant market opportunities for enterprises like SolarBank Corp. (NASDAQ: SUUN) (Cboe CA: SUNN) (FSE: GY2) that focus on manufacturing solar energy solutions for enterprise users and residential consumers.
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