The use of renewable energy sources in heating and cooling continues to increase in the EU, with the share reaching 26.7% in 2024, the highest value since the time series started in 2004 (11.7%). The share increased by 0.5 percentage points (pp) compared with 2023 (26.2%).
Biomass and heat pumps – driving growth in gross final consumption of renewable energy for heating and cooling in the EU!
Distribution by country
Among the EU countries in 2024, Sweden had the highest share of renewables in heating and cooling (67.8%), followed by Finland (62.6%) and Latvia (61.8%). By contrast, the lowest shares were recorded in Ireland (7.9%), the Netherlands and Belgium (both 11.3%).
Source: Eurostat, citing nrg_in_ren.
Compared with 2023, 16 EU countries registered an increase in the shares of these renewables in 2024, the highest being in Malta (+6.0 pp), Luxembourg (+3.7 pp) and Denmark (+1.9 pp). On the other end of the scale, the biggest declines were registered in Estonia (-11.1 pp), Greece (-2.9 pp) and Bulgaria (-1.9 pp).
The EU Directive 2023/2413 of 18 October 2023 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources requires each EU country to increase its annual average share of renewables in heating and cooling by at least 0.8 pp from 2021 to 2025 and by at least 1.1 pp from 2026 to 2030. At EU level, the annual average increased by 0.93 pp from 2021 to 2024.
Source: Eurostat