The European Union has set ambitious targets for its Member States in order to reach the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The first step States should make to achieve this result would be to obtain at least 42.5% of their energy from renewable sources, but data on the demand for energy products and their employment in 2019 show that oil still holds the primacy.

By looking at the composition of the energy demand in NUTS 3 regions, it becomes evident that many rural areas have already met their energy needs by using renewable sources, whereas most urban and industrialized regions are still heavily dependent on oil. This investigation, developed by OBC Transeuropa, digs deeper into the current picture of energy in Europe to analyze which regions are closer to the 42.5% target, why, and what could be done to accelerate the transition of EU countries towards renewable energies.

Main findings:

• In all European countries, except for Luxembourg, the main sector in which energy is used is the transformation process, namely processes in which energy obtained from fossil fuels is transformed into electricity.
• The energy demand per inhabitant varies significantly across regions, depending on various factors such as average temperature and the different incidence of the sectors of use.

• Even within the same country, the usage of different kinds of energies varies greatly between highly industrialized and urbanized areas, and more rural areas. For example, Poland has a high demand for fossil fuels in urban centers, but renewables prevail outside of them.

• Additionally, rural areas hold great potential in terms of renewable energy production, especially concerning photovoltaics. This opportunity often clashes with technical limitations, environmental and social obstacles, and the risk of concentrating energy power in the hands of few players.
• Agrivoltaics is the next frontier in terms of green energy production, because it would combine solar panels and crops on the same plots, while being beneficial for both production and the environment. However, appropriate regulation on the topic is still missing, and strong political will must be present to encourage the transition.
• Today, solar energy is driven by large-scale systems which are more efficient, but also scarcely democratic. A possible solution may come from energy communities, in which citizens participate in producing and consuming energy, saving on bills and getting greater control over local resources.

Stories

The data unit

EDJNet members which took part in this investigation: