EU Renewables Hit 54% in Q2 2026, as Brussels Backs New Cross-Border Projects

Renewable sources generated 54.1% of the EU's electricity in the second quarter of 2026, according to Eurostat, almost unchanged from 54.3% a year earlier. Solar was the largest contributor, making up 41.6% of all renewable electricity generated, up sharply from 37.0% the previous year. Wind followed with 27.7%, then hydropower with 22.6%.

The picture varies enormously by country. Latvia led the EU with 97.7% of its electricity from renewables, mostly hydro and solar, followed by Denmark (94.3%, mostly wind) and Croatia (92.2%, mostly hydro). At the other end, Slovakia (19.8%), Czechia (20.9%) and Malta (24.5%) recorded the lowest shares.

 Source dataset: nrg_cb_pem

Brussels backs three cross-border energy projects

Separately, the European Commission has approved €125.8 million in grants for three cross-border renewable energy projects, funded through the EU's Connecting Europe Facility.

The largest award, €70 million, goes to the final stage of the UNITED HEAT project, connecting district heating systems across the German-Polish border in Görlitz and Zgorzelec. A further €11.4 million will fund the TWIN HEAT project in Słubice and Frankfurt (Oder), replacing coal-fired heating with biomass boilers on the Polish side of the border.

The third project, worth €44.4 million, supports the first construction phase of a roughly 30-turbine onshore wind park near the Latvia-Lithuania border, expected to generate up to 680 GWh of renewable electricity a year once complete.