Renewables on the rise, coal continuously falling

After surpassing coal and nuclear, renewables are on the way to becoming the most important energy source in a future EU climate-neutral economy.

In 2020, solid fossil fuels (coal) continued the downward trend of previous years and clocked another 18.3% fall, decreasing for the fifth consecutive year. Compared with 2015, it has dropped by 40%. Their share in the supply mix is now barely above 10%, while in 1990, it was 25.7%. 

This information comes from data released by Eurostat recently. 

Oil and petroleum products (excluding blended biofuel portion) also declined by 12.6% in 2020, reaching the lowest levels since 1990. Natural gas saw the same tendency, but on a minor scale, decreasing by 2.4%. Nuclear fell by 10.7% and also reached the lowest levels since 1990.

Renewable energies and biofuels continue their long-term upward trend. After surpassing solid fossil fuels and nuclear in the previous decade, the next milestone towards a more sustainable and carbon-free economy would be to exceed natural gas.

In terms of consumption, the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions in 2020 was more substantial on the use of petroleum products (-10.3%) than on natural gas (-2.6%) and electricity (-3.8%). 

Movement restrictions related to the pandemic affected some petroleum products more than other fuels. Kerosene-type jet fuel registered a notable drop (-48.1%), while motor gasoline (-13.9%) saw a smaller decrease. 

Oil continues to be the most important fuel on the end-use side with a 35.0% share, followed by electricity with 23.2% and natural gas with 21.9%.