Isra-Mart srl : Europe's renewable energy capacity almost doubles in a decade

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Isra-Mart srl news:

The share of renewable energy across the EU's generation mix has almost doubled over the past decade, from 5.4 per cent to nine per cent between 1999 and 2009, according to new EU statistics released today.

The figures, produced by Eurostat at the start of EU Sustainable Energy Week, also show that the proportion of energy provided by oil, solid fuel and nuclear all fell over the same period.
All 27 member states bar Malta increased their share of renewable energy over the period, the largest increases coming from Denmark, where the renewable sector grew from meeting eight per cent of energy demand to 17 per cent by 2009.

Sweden similarly saw its share of renewable energy rise from 27 per cent to 34 per cent, while Germany's renewables sector quadrupled in size from two per cent to eight per cent of total energy capacity.

The UK's share rose from 0.9 per cent in 1999 to three per cent in 2009, still well short of its target of 15 per cent by 2020.

Although renewables were the main source of electricity in only two member states, Latvia and Sweden, green energy capacity has been steadily increasing across the continent in response to the EU target requiring the share of renewable energy across the bloc to reach 20 per cent by 2020.

The statistics are the latest in a series of figures to provide evidence that Europe's renewable energy sector is going from strength to strength.

New figures for 2010 released today revealed that renewable sources accounted for 16.9 per cent of Germany's gross electricity consumption last year, a four-fold increase over the previous 20 years.

Meanwhile, European Wind Energy Association figures released in January suggested that overall renewable capacity rose 31 per cent last year, and green generation technologies, including wind, solar, hydro and biomass, accounted for 41 per cent of all new energy installations.

Similarly, the Spanish Wind Energy Association, Asociación Empresarial Eólica (AEE), announced late last month that wind not only produced the most electricity in its history over the month, but generated more power in Spain than any other technology, including nuclear, combined cycles and hydro. With a total production of 4,738GWh, March's wind power generation could cover the whole monthly consumption of Portugal, AEE said.