Renewable energy progress in the European Union (EU) is driven by the European Commission's 2023 revision of the Renewable Energy Directive, which raises the EU's binding renewable energy target for 2030 to at least 42.5%, up from the previous target of 32%. Effective since November 20, 2023, across all EU countries, this directive aligns with broader climate objectives, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050. Additionally, the Energy 2020 strategy exceeded its goals, with the EU achieving a 22.1% share of renewable energy in 2020, surpassing the 20% target.
Many countries and territories have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:
Spain is one of the first countries to deploy large-scale solar photovoltaics, and is the world leader in concentrated solar power (CSP) production.
China is the largest market in the world for both photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. China's photovoltaic industry began by making panels for satellites, and transitioned to the manufacture of domestic panels in the late 1990s. After substantial government incentives were introduced in 2011, China's solar power market grew dramatically: the country became the world's leading installer of photovoltaics in 2013. China surpassed Germany as the world's largest producer of photovoltaic energy in 2015, and became the first country to have over 100 GW of total installed photovoltaic capacity in 2017.
Solar power includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2023, utility-scale solar power generated 164.5 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 3.9% of electricity in the United States. Total solar generation that year, including estimated small-scale photovoltaic generation, was 238 TWh.
Concentrated solar power systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted to heat, which drives a heat engine connected to an electrical power generator or powers a thermochemical reaction.
Solar power in Romania had an installed capacity of 1,374 megawatt (MW) as of the end of 2017. The country had in 2007 an installed capacity of 0.30 MW, which increased to 3.5 MW by the end of 2011, and to 6.5 MW by the end of 2012. However, the record year of 2013 was an exception, and new installation fell back from 1,100 MW to a moderate level of 69 MW in 2014.
Solar power in Greece has been driven by a combination of government incentives and equipment cost reductions. The installation boom started in the late 2000s with feed-in tariffs has evolved into a market featuring auctions, power purchase agreements, and self-generation. The country's relatively high level of solar insolation is an advantage boosting the effectiveness of solar panels; within Europe, Greece receives 50% more solar irradiation than Germany.
The Polish energy sector is the fifth largest in Europe. By the end of 2023, the installed generation capacity had reached 55.216 GW, while electricity consumption for that year was 167.52 TWh and generation was 163.63 TWh, with 26% of this coming from renewables.
Solar power is an important contributor to electricity generation in Italy, accounting for 8% of the total in 2017. As of 2022, the country has a total installed capacity of 22.56 GW. In 2019, Italy set a national goal of reaching 50 GW by 2030.
Renewable energy in the Czech Republic describes the renewable energy related development in the Energy in the Czech Republic.
As of the end of 2022, solar power in Austria amounted to nearly 3.8 gigawatt (GW) of cumulative photovoltaic (PV) capacity, with the energy source producing 4.2% of the nation's electricity.
Solar power in France including overseas territories reached an installed capacity figure of 11.2 GW in 2020, and rose further to 17.1 GW at the end of 2022. Government plans announced in 2022 foresee solar PV capacity in France rising to 100 GW by 2050.
Solar power in Belgium reached an installed capacity of 9.9 GW at the end of 2023, an increase of 1.8 GW from 2022.
Solar power in Cyprus benefits from over 3,300 hours of sunlight annually, giving it the highest potential in the European Union (EU).
Under its commitment to the EU renewable energy directive of 2009, France has a target of producing 23% of its total energy needs from renewable energy by 2020. This figure breaks down to renewable energy providing 33% of energy used in the heating and cooling sector, 27% of the electricity sector and 10.5% in the transport sector. By the end of 2014, 14.3% of France's total energy requirements came from renewable energy, a rise from 9.6% in 2005.
EurObserv'ER is a consortium dedicated to the monitoring of the development of the various sectors of renewable energies in the European Union.
Solar energy in Poland includes the production of solar thermal energy and solar photovoltaics. By the end of 2021, there were around 3,000,000 square metres (32,000,000 sq ft) of installed solar thermal collectors which in Poland are primarily used for heating up household water.
Renewable energy in Greece accounted for 29 percent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2021. By 2030, renewables are expected to have a capacity of 28GW, and exceed 61 percent of Greece's electricity consumption. This is a significant increase from 8% of the country's total energy consumption in 2008. By 2022, Greece occasionally reached 100% renewables for a few hours. The target for 2050 is a capacity of 65GW.
Under the original 2009 Renewable Energy Directive Ireland had set a target of producing 16% of all its energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2020 but that has been updated by a second Renewable Energy Directive whose targets are 32% by 2030. Between 2005 and 2014 the percentage of energy from renewable energy sources grew from just 3.1% to 8.6% of total final consumption. By 2020 the overall renewable energy share was 13.5%, short of its Renewable Energy Drive target of 16%. Renewable electricity accounted for 69% of all renewable energy used in 2020, up from two thirds (66.8%) in 2019.
