Spain is the eighth country in the EU with the least renewable energy for heating and air conditioning

In 2023, the share of renewable energy in heating and cooling – in the latter case, in air conditioning units and refrigerators, for example – continued its upward trend.

Redacción Thursday, March 6, 2025 / 09:11

Spain ranks eighth among EU countries with the lowest proportion of renewable energy in heating and cooling, something traditionally led by Sweden, while Ireland is the EU Member State with the lowest rate since 2019. This is evident from data from Eurostat, whose historical series begins in 2004 and the last year with available information for all EU countries is 2023.

The 2023 Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources requires EU countries to increase their average annual share of renewable energy in heating and cooling by at least 0.8 percentage points from 2021 to 2025 and by at least 1.1 percentage points from 2026 to 2030.

In 2023, the share of renewable energy in heating and cooling – in the latter case, in air conditioners and refrigerators, for example – continued its upward trend and reached an all-time high, with an average of 26.2% in EU countries, which is 1.2 percentage points higher than in 2022 (25.0%).

Sweden topped the list with 67.1%, ahead of Estonia (66.7%). Both countries rely mainly on biomass and heat pumps. Latvia (61.4%), which relies mainly on biomass, remained in third place. Behind were Finland (61.3%), Denmark (54.9%) and Lithuania (53.6%). All of them are northern European countries and the only ones to exceed 50%.

Spain was in 20th position (21.5%), ahead of Ireland (7.9%), the Netherlands (10.2%), Belgium (11.3%), Luxembourg (15.5%), Germany (17.1%), Slovakia (18.8%) and Poland (20.4%).

Compared to 2022, the largest increases were recorded in Austria (up 8.1 percentage points), Malta (up 7.5) and Greece (up 4.9). At the other end of the scale, the largest decreases were recorded in Sweden (-2.7), Poland (-2.2) and Slovakia (-1.1). Spain had an increase of 2.0 percentage points.

SUSTAINED INCREASE

In absolute terms, gross final consumption of renewable energy for heating and cooling in the EU has gradually increased over time, mainly due to the contribution of biomass and heat pumps.

Between 2014 and 2023, the average share of energy from renewables for heating and cooling increased from 19.9% to 26.2% across the EU (up 6.3 percentage points).

The 2023 Directive on the Promotion of the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources requires EU countries to increase their average annual share of renewable energy in heating and cooling by at least 0.8 percentage points between 2021 and 2025, and by at least 1.1 points between 2026 and 2030.