According to Eurostat data, the share of renewable energy in the Republic of Croatia in 2018 was 28 percent in total energy consumption, meaning that Croatia is significantly above the EU average.
As Marina Klepo/Novac writes on the 25th of January, 2020, according to these indicators, Croatia is among the European Union (EU) countries to have exceeded the prescribed level for 2020, and the target set for Croatia is 20 percent.
However, back in 2004 that level stood at a significantly less 23.4 percent in Croatia. The share of renewable energy in total consumption was determined for each EU country individually, taking into account different starting positions, the respective level of potential in the area of renewable sources, and economic results. In the case of Croatia, it is obvious that the goal set was lower than the starting position.
Compared to 2017, the share of renewable energy in 2018 increased by 0.7 percentage points, but was lower than in 2015 when it stood at 29 percent, which indicates that there has been no progress in recent years despite Croatia being above the EU average.
Renewable energy sources include wind energy, solar energy, biomass, heat from the Earth's interior, hot springs (geothermal energy) and water power. Of these sources, Croatia is best represented by its hydropower.
Increasing the share of renewable energy sources is considered crucial to achieving the set climate and energy targets. At the EU level, the share of energy from renewable sources in total final energy consumption in 2018 reached 18 percent, an increase of half a percentage point when compared to the year before.
Compared to 2004, the share has more than doubled, from the then 8.5 percent, while, as stated, the target for this year is 20 percent.
Almost every third country in the EU has already reached or exceeded its binding targets. In addition to Croatia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland and Sweden are in this group.
Sweden accounted for the largest share of renewable energy in its total final consumption in 2018, 54.6 percent, followed by Finland with 41.2 percent, Latvia with 40.3 percent, Denmark with 36.1 percent and Austria with 33.4 percent.
The lowest share was recorded in the Netherlands, with only 7.4 percent, with Malta (8% percent), Luxembourg (9.1 percent) and Belgium (9.4 percent). The four EU countries which are very close to reaching the prescribed share of renewables are Romania, Hungary, Austria and Portugal, with the worst of them all being the Netherlands and France, which are more than 6 percent off the target.
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