ABSTRACT
The development of renewable electricity in Europe is very different depending on where you look and in what perspective. Some countries, like Denmark, Spain and Germany, exhibit strong development. In the past 20 years, Denmark increased its share of renewable power by over 1000%, and Germany increased production by 73 TWh/a between 1990 and 2007. In other countries, like France and Austria, the situation is less positive, as they have experienced decreasing shares of renewables, due to increasing electricity demand. In
a European Union (EU) perspective, average annual growth has been a very modest 3.2% in the same period of time (Eurostat 2010). When considered together, EU countries will collectively have failed to meet the Union’s nonbinding 2010 renewables target (21% of final electricity consumption) by a wide margin (European Commission 2009).
