Bulgaria's share of renewables in energy consumption lowest among EU states in SEE

Bulgaria was the sole EU country from SEE to be among the 15 member states, where the share of green energy in final consumption was below the EU average, Eurostat said in a data release.

With a share of 62.6%, Sweden, mostly using a mix of biomass, hydro, wind, heat pumps and liquid biofuels, topped the list, ahead of Finland with 43.1% and Latvia with 42.1%. Luxembourg, with a share of 11.7%, remained at the bottom of the list.

Elsewhere in SEE, Croatia had the largest share of renewable energy in gross final consumption in 2021 - 31.3%, followed by Romania with 23.6%, Slovenia with 25% and Greece with 21.9%.

At 21.8%, the current EU average share of renewables in final consumption decreased for the first time, by 0.3 percentage points on 2020, putting under question the viability of the 32% target share set by the EU for 2030. Nevertheless, the EU has managed to more than double that share between 2004 and 2021.

According to the data, Bulgaria recorded the biggest annual drop in the share of renewable energy, which was 23.3% in 2020. In Romania, it slightly decreased from 24.5% in 2020, while in Slovenia no change was recorded. Greece and Croatia had minimal increases of below 0.5 percentage points.

Across the 27-member bloc, wind and hydro power accounted for more than two-thirds of the total electricity generated from renewable sources, with 37.5% and 32.1%, respectively, ahead of solar power with 15.1% and solid biofuels with 7.4%.

"In addition to the effect that lifting COVID-19 restrictions in 2021 had on increasing energy consumption, which decreased the share of renewables (despite an increase in renewable energy production in absolute terms compared with 2020), a change in methodology also helps explain this development," Eurostat noted.