Consumption of renewable energy up in EU

In 2012, energy from renewable sources was estimated to have contributed 14.1 percent of gross final energy consumption in the EU, compared with 8.3 percent in 2004, the first year for which this data is available, Eurostat, the EU statistical office, reported Monday.The target to be reached by 2020 for the EU is a share of 20 percent renewable energy use in gross final energy consumption.Since 2004, the share of renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy grew in all EU member states.The largest increases during this period were recorded in Sweden (from 38.7 percent in 2004 to 51.0 percent in 2012), Denmark (from 14.5 percent to 26.0 percent), Austria (from 22.7 percent to 32.1 percent), Greece (from 7.2 percent to 15.1 percent) and Italy (from 5.7 percent to 13.5 percent).The highest shares of renewable energy in final energy consumption in 2012 were found in Sweden (51.0 percent of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy), Latvia (35.8 percent), Finland (34.3 percent) and Austria (32.1 percent), and the lowest in Malta (1.4 percent), Luxembourg (3.1 percent), the United Kingdom (4.2 percent) and the Netherlands (4.5 percent).In 2011, Estonia was the first EU member state to reach its 2020 target and in 2012 Bulgaria, Estonia and Sweden already achieved their 2020 targets.