Green Forum • 5 March, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Renewable energy use in heating and cooling continues to grow across the EU, reaching 26.2% in 2023—the highest level since records began in 2004 (11.7%).
This marks a 1.2 percentage point increase from 2022 (25.0%). Under EU Directive 2023/2413, member states must raise their average annual share of renewables in heating and cooling by at least 0.8 percentage points between 2021 and 2025, and by at least 1.1 percentage points from 2026 to 2030.
The overall consumption of renewable energy for heating and cooling has steadily risen, mainly driven by biomass and heat pumps.
Sweden led the EU in 2023 with a 67.1% share of renewables in heating and cooling, followed by Estonia (66.7%) and Latvia (61.4%), all relying primarily on biomass and heat pumps.
At the other end, Ireland (7.9%), the Netherlands (10.2%), and Belgium (11.3%) had the lowest shares of renewables in this sector.