Heating and cooling from renewables hits 26.2%
10th March 2025
EUROPE: The use of renewable energy sources in heating and cooling continues to increase in the EU, with its share of energy from renewables reaching 26.2% in 2023.
The latest figures from Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistics office, reveals that the 2023 share was a 1.2 percentage point increase compared with 2022, reaching its highest value since 2004 (11.7%).
In absolute terms, the gross final consumption of renewable energy for heating and cooling purposes in the EU has gradually increased over time, mostly due to the contribution of biomass and heat pumps.
Among the EU countries, Sweden led the way again in 2023 when it came to renewables in heating and cooling, with a 67.1% share, followed by Estonia (66.7%). Both countries use mostly biomass and heat pumps.
In contrast, the lowest shares of renewable sources in heating and cooling were recorded in Ireland (7.9%), the Netherlands (10.2%) and Belgium (11.3%).
Compared with 2022, 21 EU countries registered an increase in the shares of renewables used in heating and cooling. Austria (+8.1pp), Malta (+7.5pp) and Greece (+4.9pp) recorded the largest increases between 2022 and 2023.
On the other end of the scale, decreases were registered in Sweden (-2.7pp), Poland (-2.2pp), Slovakia (-1.1pp), Croatia (-1.0pp), Germany (-0.5pp) and Luxembourg (-0.1pp).
