Brussels, 29/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - According to Eurostat the total electricity generating capacity in the EU25 amounted to almost 704 GW1 in 2004, 6% more than in 2000. The installed capacity of wind turbines has increased by 154% since 2000. Conventional thermal power stations - those that burn fossil fuels - dominate in the EU25, however, accounting for 58% of installed capacity in 2004. Nuclear power plants represented 19%, hydroelectric power plants 18%, and wind turbines, just under 5%. Germany (19%), the United Kingdom (16%) and Italy (14%) together had almost half of the conventional thermal generating capacity in the EU. France alone accounted for nearly half of the EU's nuclear capacity. France (20%), Italy (16%) and Spain (14%) together made up half of the hydropower generating capacity. Germany accounted for around half of the installed wind turbine capacity in the EU, Spain close to one quarter and Denmark to 10%. Conventional thermal power stations accounted for the totality of the electricity generation in Cyprus and Malta, the near totality in Estonia and had a share of over 90% in the Netherlands and Poland. In Latvia and Austria the share of hydropower in total installed capacity was 71% and 63% respectively. Wind power was significant in Denmark (23% of total generation capacity), Germany (13%) and Spain (12%).
Eurostat also highlights that although in the Union's electricity market Electricity networks across the EU are interconnected to some extent, except Malta and Cyprus, cross border trade in electricity is limited by the carrying capacity of the interconnections. The largest net exporters in 2004 were France (62 040 GWh) and the Czech Republic (15 717 GWh), while the largest net importers were Italy (45 635 GWh) and the Netherlands (16 217 GWh). By September 2005, ten EU Member States - Denmark, Germany, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom - had opened3 their electricity markets fully to competition. In most of the remaining countries, markets were open for business consumers. Overall, there were more than 460 electricity generating companies in the EU25 in 2004. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovakia each had only one major electricity generating company, i.e. producing at least 5% of the country's electricity, while 4 countries - Germany, Austria, Poland and Finland - each had five major companies, and the United Kingdom had seven. On the retail side, there were over 2900 retailers registered in the EU25 in 2004, of which 940 were in Germany. Four of these each supplied at least 5% of the total electricity in Germany, and thus are considered major. Similarly, France had 166 retailers, but only one that could be considered major. The Czech Republic (238) (8), Spain 315 (3), Italy 400 (1) and Poland (202) (5).