Renewable energy led EU electricity production in 2023

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
The data shows that renewable energy sources, including solar PV and wind generation, produced 1.12 million GWh of electricity last year. Credit: SolarPower Europe

Renewable energy sources provided 44.7% of the EU’s electricity consumption in 2023, according to data from Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistical office.

The data shows that renewable energy sources, including solar PV and wind generation, produced 1.12 million GWh of electricity last year, an increase of 12.4% compared with 2022 statistics.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Simultaneously, the fossil fuel share of electricity production fell by 19.7% from 2022 and reached 32.5% of the EU total (around 0.88 million GWh).

Graph: Eurostat

The report did not break down the individual renewable energy generation sources, but a year-end report from PV industry trade body SolarPower Europe (SPE) recorded that the EU installed 56GW of new solar capacity in 2023, the largest addition ever.

Despite this growth, Europe is behind its deployment targets for Net Zero, which necessitates 70GW of solar PV entering operations annually. Growth in 2024 is expected to slow down as inflation impacts uptake in the residential sector and the effects of the energy crisis of 2022 lessen.

SolarPower Europe also published a report showing that Europe’s lack of grid development could hold up the “ambitious” solar deployment plans included in member states’ updated national energy and climate plans (NECP).

EU member states updated the NECPs in 2023, and almost all included an expansion of renewable energy deployment targets. SPE reported that, cumulatively, the new targets amounted to an additional 90GW of possible solar deployments. These are imperilled by the EU’s out-of-date grid infrastructure, SPE said in an April report, which is too static and centralised to deal with a fast increase in more distributed renewable energy resources.

In particular, SPE highlighted a lack of demand-side flexibility and digitalization which “risks putting the cart before the horse” – developing solar capacity without the ability to harness it.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.

Read Next

June 9, 2025
Sonnedix has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Renfe to supply 420GWh of renewable energy annually for its commercial operations.
June 9, 2025
Growing political headwinds threaten to dent US solar manufacturing and project deployment, despite a strong start to 2025.
June 6, 2025
rPlus Energies has secured more than US$500 million for an 800MW solar-plus-storage project in Emery County, Utah, US.  
June 6, 2025
Australia’s Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has called on Australia’s climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, to “urgently intervene” on a rule change that could threaten to derail the uptake of rooftop solar PV.
June 6, 2025
ElectraNet has revealed that renewables supplied 100% of South Australia's electricity demand for 27% of 2024, roughly 99 days.
June 5, 2025
Solar manufacturer Involt Energy has broken ground on its first solar cell manufacturing plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat, with an initial annual nameplate capacity of 1.78GW. 

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
June 17, 2025
Napa, USA
Upcoming Webinars
June 30, 2025
10am PST / 6pm BST
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
July 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece