Clean power has surged in the EU since 2019. Wind and solar are rising across Member States, increasingly pushing coal and gas out of the mix, according to think-tank Ember.
Since the current European Commission took office in 2019, the EU’s power sector has changed enormously. Wind and solar have grown at a rapid pace, displacing fossil fuel generation and driving down emissions. This has continued the EU’s global leadership on energy transition, with ambitious approaches to energy and climate apparent across many Member States.
The EU’s strong commitment to the clean electricity transition, reaffirmed with the approval of the Green Deal in January 2020, has resulted in a deep transformation of its electricity sector. Since 2019, EU wind and solar capacity has grown by 65% (+188 GW). Wind capacity increased by 31% (+52 GW) to reach 219 GW in 2023. Solar capacity has surged even faster, more than doubling (+113%) from 120 GW to 257 GW. This is equivalent to installing more than 230,000 solar panels every day during these four years.
This new wind and solar capacity resulted in a 46% (+226 TWh) combined increase in generation from 2019 to 2023 and propelled wind and solar’s share in the EU electricity mix from 17% in 2019 to over a quarter in 2023 (27%). This was the main driver behind the increase in the share of total renewables from 34% in 2019 to 44% in 2023.
