Large combustion plants are responsible for a significant proportion of anthropogenic pollutant emissions.
Since 2004, emissions from large combustion plants in the 28 EU Member States have decreased, by 86 % for sulphur dioxide, 59 % for nitrogen oxides and 84 % for dust.
In 2017, from a total of 3 664 large combustion plants, 50 % of all emissions came from just 68, 141 and 58 plants for sulphur dioxide , nitrogen oxides and dust, respectively. However, the performances of these largest plants have improved greatly over time.
One indicator of the environmental performance of large combustion plants is the ratio between emissions and fuel consumption (i.e. the implied emission factor). The implied emission factors for all three pollutants decreased significantly between 2004 and 2017 for all sizes of large combustion plants.
The share of renewable energy in gross final energy use in the EU has doubled since 2005. It reached 17.6 % in 2017 and increased further to 18.0 % in 2018, according to the early estimates from the European Environment Agency (EEA).
The increase in the share of renewable energy sources in final energy consumption has slowed down in recent years. Increasing energy consumption and lack of progress in the transport sector compromise the chances of achieving both 2020 targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency at EU level.
In 2018, according to the EEA's early estimates:
progress towards national targets improved across the EU, with 24 Member States (all but France, Ireland, the Netherlands and Poland) meeting or exceeding their indicative targets set under the Renewable Energy Directive, compared with 21 Member States on target in 2017. In addition, 16 Member States (all except Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) reached or exceeded the trajectories set in their own National Renewable Energy Action Plans, the same as in 2017;
12 countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Sweden) had already managed to achieve their binding renewable energy share targets for 2020, as set under the Renewable Energy Directive;
renewable energy accounted for 30.7 % of gross final electricity consumption, 19.5 % of energy consumption for heating and cooling, and 7.6 % of transport fuel consumption in the whole EU.
Between 1990 and 2017, the EU's energy intensity — i.e. the ratio between its gross inland energy consumption and its gross domestic product (GDP) — decreased by 37 %.
This decrease was continuous throughout the entire period, with an average annual decrease of 1.7 % per year. The 1990-2005 period is characterised by relatively high economic growth and more moderate growth in gross inland energy consumption. In contrast, the 2005-2014 period is characterised by lower economic growth (in some years even negative) and decreasing gross inland energy consumption. However, gross inland consumption of energy started to increase again after 2014, marking a slow-down in energy intensity improvements.
In all member countries of the European Environment Agency (EEA), energy intensity decreased between 2005 and 2017. The largest decreases were observed in Malta (-4.9 %), Ireland (-4.5 %) and in central and eastern European countries (notably Romania, Slovakia, and Lithuania) because of changes in their economic structure.
Annual energy consumption in transport in the EEA-33 grew by 38 % between 1990 and 2007 (32 % in EU-28). However, the economic recession caused a decline in transport demand, leading to a 3 % decrease in the related energy demand in the last decade.
The shipping sector saw the greatest decline of 10 % in energy consumption between 2008 and 2009 alone, with a total decrease of 19 % between 2007 and 2017, while energy use in air transport increased by 7 % between 2007 and 2017.
Road transport accounts for the largest proportion of energy consumption in the transport sector, accounting for 73 % of the total demand in 2017. It was still 34 % higher in 2017 than in 1990.
The EU's final energy intensity decreased by 18.6 % between 2005 and 2017, at a rate of 1.7 % per year. Final energy consumption decreased at a rate of 0.5 % per year, while gross domestic product grew by 1.2 % annually over the same period, on average. This indicates a decoupling of final energy consumption from economic growth in the EU.
During this period, final energy intensity decreased most in the industry sector (2.4 % per year), followed by the agriculture sector (1.7 % per year), the services or tertiary sector (1.3 % per year), the transport sector (1.2 % per year) and the households sector (0.9 % per year).
Since 1990, total final energy intensity in the EU has decreased by 35.2 %, at a rate of 1.6 % per year.
The final energy intensity trend has varied among EEA countries between 2005 and 2017. The largest decreases, by more than 3 % per year, occurred in Ireland, Slovakia, Romania. The smallest decreases, by less than 1 %, occurred in Greece, Finland and Turkey. Final energy intensity increased in one country, Iceland, by 1.3 % per year
In 2018, sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and battery-electric vehicles (BEV) continued to increase. However, the combined share of PHEVs and BEVs in all car sales remained low reaching 2 % in 2018 compared with 1.5 % in 2017.
With around 150 000 registrations, sales of BEVs increased by 50 % compared with 2017. Around 145 000 PHEVs were registered in 2018, a 15 % increase compared with 2017.
The combined shares of PHEV and BEV sales were highest in Iceland (15 %), Sweden (8.4 %) and the Netherlands (6.8 %).
There are 3 664 large combustion plants in the EU-28.
Installed capacity increased by 4 % overall between 2004 and 2017. The trend reached a maximum in 2012.
The use of biomass, tripled from 2004 to 2017, although it was still used in relatively low amounts (6 % of the total in 2017).
Solid fuels (coal, lignite, peat and other solid fossil fuels) and natural gas remain the main sources of fuel input but the amount used decreased by around 25 % in the period. This could reflect the shift in Europe’s energy system from oil, coal and gas to renewable sources.
The installed capacity of large combustion plants is not equally distributed across Europe: Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, Spain and France ( in order of rank ), accounted for more than 65 % of total fuel input and operating capacity in 2017.
Industry is still a significant source of pollutant releases to Europe’s environment.
Releases of pollutants to air and water by European industry have generally decreased during the last decade.
Environmental regulation and improved pollutant abatement technology, among other factors, have led to decreasing pollutant releases to air and water in Europe.
Soil contamination in Europe is, among other things, linked to industrial activity.
Waste transfers from industrial facilities in the EU have remained relatively stable in the last decade.
The annual population-weighted heating degree days (HDD) decreased by 6 % between the periods 1950–1980 and 1981–2017; the decrease during the period 1981–2017 was on average 6.5 HDDs per year. The largest decrease occurred in northern Europe and possibly in Italy.
The annual population-weighted cooling degree days (CDD) increased by 33 % between the periods 1950–1980 and 1981–2017; the increase during the period 1981–2017 was on average 0.9 HDDs per year. The largest increase occurred in southern Europe.
The observed trend in HDDs and CDDs is projected to continue throughout the 21st century. The largest absolute decreases in HDDs are expected in northern and south-eastern Europe; the largest absolute increases in CDDs are expected in southern Europe.
The decrease in HDDs in Europe is projected to be much larger than the increase in CDDs in absolute terms. However, a given change in CDDs generally has larger economic impacts than the same change in HDDs, because cooling is almost exclusively produced from electricity, whereas heating is often derived from energy carriers with lower specific costs and primary energy requirements.
The projected increase in cooling demand in southern Europe may further exacerbate peaks in electricity demand in summer. This can threaten the stability of electricity networks during summer heatwaves, unless appropriate adaptation measures are taken.
Over the period 1990-2016, the energy efficiency of end-use sectors improved by 30 % in the EU-28 countries at an annual average rate of 1.4 %/year.
These improvements were driven by improvements in the industry sector (1.8 %/year) and the households sector (1.6 %/year). However, half of the efficiency gains achieved through technological innovation in the household sector were offset by the increasing number of electrical appliances and by larger homes.
The rates of improvement were lower in the transport sector (0.9 %/year) and services sector (1.1 %/year).
Between 2005 and 2016, final energy consumption decreased by 7.1% (0.7% annually) in the EU28. Final energy consumption decreased in all sectors, particularly in industry and households (16.4 %, and 8.0% respectively) but also in transport (0.5%). In the services sector the final energy consumption increased (3.8%). The overall decrease in final energy consumption since 2005 was influenced by economic performance, structural changes in various end-use sectors, in particular industry, improvements in end-use efficiency and lower heat consumption due to favorable climatic conditions particularly in 2011 and 2014.
Between 2015 and 2016, the final energy consumption in the EU28 increased by 2% above its 2020 target.
Preliminary data for 2017 suggest that the final energy consumption since 2005 decreased by 6.1% in the EU28 (0.5% annually), and increased between 2016 and 2017 by 1.1%.
Between 1990 and 2016 the final energy consumption increased by 2.1% in the EU28 and by 7.5% in the EEA countries.
In the EEA countries final energy consumption decreased by 3.9% (0.4% annually) between 2005 and 2016. The largest contributor of this decrease was the industry (15.7%) and the household sector (11.6%). On average, each person in the EEA countries used 2.0 tonnes of oil equivalent to meet their energy needs in 2016.
In 2016, primary energy consumption in the EU amounted to 1 543 million tonnes of oil equivalent, 4.0 % above the 2020 target.
Between 2005 and 2016, primary energy consumption in the EU decreased by 10 %. This was due to energy efficiency improvements, an increase in the share of renewable energy sources (hydro, wind and solar photovoltaic power) in total energy consumption, the economic recession and climate changes.
Based on the European Environment Agency's preliminary estimates, in 2017 primary energy consumption was 1 563 million tonnes of oil equivalent in the EU. This represents a 1.3 % increase compared with 2016.
Fossil fuels (including non-renewable waste) continued to dominate primary energy consumption in the EU, but their share declined from 78 % in 2005 to 72 % in 2016. The share of renewable energy sources almost doubled over the same period, from 7 % in 2005 to 14 % in 2016, increasing at an average annual rate of 5.4 % per year between 2005 and 2016. The share of nuclear energy in primary energy consumption decreased slightly, from 15 % in 2005 to 14 % in 2016.
The EU’s dependence on imports of fossil fuels (gas, solid fuels and oil) from non-EU countries slightly increased, from 52 % in 2005 to 54 % in 2016, expressed as a share of total gross inland energy consumption plus bunkers. In 2016, oil represented 59 % of total net imports, gas 30 % and solid fuels 11 %.
Between 2005 and 2016, the efficiency of public conventional thermal power plants in the EU increased from 47 % to almost 50 %.
The efficiency of electricity and heat production from autoproducer conventional thermal power plants stabilised at around 57 % in the period 2007-2016. This followed a 5 percentage point decrease in the 2 years before.
In 2016, low-carbon energy sources (i.e. renewables and nuclear energy) continued to dominate the electricity mix for the second year in a row, together generating more power than fossil fuel sources.
Fossil fuels (i.e. coal, natural gas and oil) were responsible for 43 % of all gross electricity generation in 2016, a decrease of 11 percentage points across the EU compared with 2005 (54 %).
By way of contrast, the share of electricity generated from renewable sources has grown rapidly since 2005, but the pace of growth has slowed down after 2014. In 2016, renewable electricity reached almost one third (29 %) of all gross electricity generation in the EU. This is twice as much as in 2005. As such, renewable sources generated more electricity in 2016 than nuclear sources or coal and lignite.
Nuclear energy sources contributed roughly one quarter (26 %) of all gross electricity generation in 2016.
The transition from fossil fuels to renewable fuels, together with improved transformation efficiencies in electricity generation, led to an average annual 2.6 % decrease in CO 2 emissions per kWh between 2005 and 2016.
Final electricity consumption (the total consumption of electricity by all end-use sectors plus electricity imports and minus exports) in the EU increased by one percent in 2016 compared with 2015, reaching the same level as in 2005. The sharpest growth was observed in the services sector (1.2 % per year) and the sharpest decline in industry (-1.0 % per year).
With regards to the non-EU EEA countries, between 2005 and 2016, electricity generation increased by an average of 4.9 % per year in Turkey, 7.1 % per year in Iceland and 0.7 % per year in Norway.
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