Brussels, 05/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - At the end of 2014 the EU was still on the right track for attaining the 20% renewable energies target in the overall energy cluster by 2020. This was down to the increase in renewables as part of final energy consumption from14.9% in 2013, to 15.8% in 2014, according to the initial estimates made by the consortium specialising in the follow-up to the expansion of renewable energies in the EU, the EurObserv'ER stated and published on 22 December 2015.
Whilst overall energy consumption in the EU continued to decline in 2014 in a more significant way than in 2012 and 2013: a 50 million t equivalent decrease in oil (Mtep), from 1,150 Mtep in 2013 to 1,100 Mtep in 2014, renewable energy consumption increased by 3.1 Mtep over the same period, from 171.3 to 174.4 Mtep.
This increase in the consumption of renewable energies can be explained by the leap in renewable electricity production in 2014 and the 1.8 Mtep rise in hydroelectric production, 2.1 Mtep increase for wind turbine energy and 0.9 Mtep for solar electricity but also by the increase in renewable energy consumption in the transport sector by 1 Mtep.
On the other hand, renewable heat consumption fell by 1.8 Mtep at an EU level due to the sharp fall in biomass heat consumption (a fall of 2.8 Mtep). This was down to a particularly warm year, which reduced the need for wood-fuelled household heating.
At the same time, biomass electricity production, which is less dependent on changes in the weather, increased by 4.5% compared to 2013 levels to reach 84.8 megawatts an hour in 2014, due to the expansion in cogeneration and the conversion of new coal-powered plants.
At a national level, seven member states: Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Romania and Sweden, have already reached their 2020 objectives. Five member states: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland and Latvia, have almost met their commitments by reaching more than 90% of their objective.
Some of the big energy consumers such as Germany and France have respectively attained 76.5% and 62.8% of their goals, whilst the United Kingdom is lagging significantly behind and has only reached 44.5% of its objective. The Netherlands is even further and has achieved only 38.7% of its 2020 objective. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)