2025 will go down in history as a landmark year for the ecological transition. For the first time, renewables have overtaken fossil fuels in Europe in terms of electricity generation. The milestone is confirmed by the European Electricity Review 2026, published on 22 January by the think tank Ember.

Renewables at 30 per cent of Europe's generation, fossil fuels at 29 per cent

The report explains that, including hydropower and other clean energy sources, renewables as a whole covered 48 per cent of generation across the continent. In particular, solar photovoltaic and wind accounted for 30 per cent, overtaking coal, oil and gas, which stalled at 29 per cent. Less than a quarter of European generation (23 per cent) came from nuclear, which — unlike renewables, which continue to grow — remains stable.

Ember @ember_energy

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2025 was another RECORD-breaking year for the EU energy transition.

🇪🇺 Wind and solar overtook fossil fuels in the EU electricity mix
🇪🇺 Wind and solar surpassed fossils in 14 of 27 EU countries' electricity mix
🇪🇺 Solar grew by a record 20% last year

ember-energy.org/latest-insight…

♥ 149💬 7 23 gen 2026 · Apri su X →

The positive trend is further underscored by the continued decline of fossil fuels, which now appears unstoppable. The most harmful sources in terms of greenhouse gas emissions have been overtaken by renewables in fourteen of the twenty-seven European Union member states: Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Finland, Spain, Austria, France, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Croatia and the Netherlands. Italy does not feature on the list — the gap between renewables and fossil fuels there remains wide, though it is slowly narrowing.

Solar photovoltaic up by more than 20 per cent compared to 2024

The fastest-growing source in Europe is above all solar. The now very low cost of installations is facilitating the uptake of this renewable source, which has also benefited from favourable weather conditions — unlike hydropower, for instance, which suffered from low rainfall. Solar photovoltaic plants generated as much as 369 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2025, a figure more than 20 per cent higher than the previous year.

According to Ember, this marks the fourth consecutive year of growth exceeding twenty percentage points for solar. In June in particular, solar represented — for the first time — the leading source at continental level. Hydropower generation, by contrast, fell by 12 per cent, while wind dropped by a more modest 2.5 per cent. Less windy conditions prevented the source from maintaining its 2024 output levels, despite 5.3 gigawatts of additional installed capacity.

Coal continues to decline, but Europe remains heavily dependent on gas

On the fossil fuels side, the most encouraging news concerns the ongoing decline of coal — by far the most harmful source in terms of climate change — which now accounts for less than 10 per cent of the total in the European Union. Nineteen European countries have by now nearly phased it out of their energy mix entirely. Only in Germany and Poland does it remain particularly significant.

The situation regarding gas is certainly less encouraging: the European Union continues to depend heavily on this source, with gas-fired power plants generating 466 terawatt-hours of energy in 2025, up 8 per cent. According to the Ember report, however, this is a factor linked to the fall in hydropower output: in previous years, gas had also been declining, largely due to rising prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.