Renewable Energy Consumption in the European Union: Are Nordic Countries in the Lead?

Krzysztof Adam Firlej

doi:10.2478/ceej-2026-0010

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Renewable Energy Consumption in the European Union: Are Nordic Countries in the Lead?

Central European Economic Journal

Volume 13 (2026): Issue 60 (January 2026)

By: Krzysztof Adam Firlej

Open Access

|Jun 2026

Figures & Tables

Descriptive statistics for the diagnostic variables for 2015 and 2022. Source: own elaboration based on results

Country ranks according to the four ordering procedures for 2022 data. Source: own elaboration based on results. Note: Method designations as in Table 2. HELLWIG, Hellwig method; MUZ, zero-based unitisation method; SSW, the method of sums of standardised values; TOPSIS, the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution

Ranks of European Union member states for 2022 and 2015 by development of RES consumption calculated with the SSW method. Source: own elaboration based on results. RES, renewable energy sources

Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption in European Union member states in 2015 and 2022 vs European Union averages. Source: own elaboration based on: (Eurostat, 2024). AT, Austria; BE, Belgium; BG, Bulgaria; CY, Cyprus; CZ, Czechia; DK, Denmark; DE, Germany; EE, Estonia; ES, Spain; FI, Finland; FR, France; GR, Greece; HR, Croatia; HU, Hungary; IE, Ireland; IT, Italy; LT, Lithuania; LU, Luxembourg; LV, Latvia; MT, Malta; NL, Netherlands; PL, Poland; PT, Portugal; RO, Romania; SE, Sweden; SI, Slovenia; SK, Slovakia

RES in sectors [%] in European Union member states in 2015 and 2022 vs European Union averages. Source: own elaboration based on: (Eurostat, 2024). AT, Austria; BE, Belgium; BG, Bulgaria; CZ, Czechia; CY, Cyprus; DK, Denmark; DE, Germany; EE, Estonia; ES, Spain; FI, Finland; FR, France; GR, Greece; HR, Croatia; HU, Hungary; IE, Ireland; IT, Italy; LT, Lithuania; LU, Luxembourg; LV, Latvia; MT, Malta; NL, Netherlands; PL, Poland; PT, Portugal; RES, renewable energy sources; RO, Romania; SE, Sweden; SI, Slovenia; SK, Slovakia

2022/2015 relative changes for the diagnostic variables. *: double value; **: quadruple value Source: own elaboration based on the results. AT, Austria; BE, Belgium; BG, Bulgaria; CY, Cyprus; CZ, Czechia; DK, Denmark; DE, Germany; EE, Estonia; ES, Spain; FI, Finland; FR, France; GR, Greece; HR, Croatia; HU, Hungary; IE, Ireland; IT, Italy; LT, Lithuania; LU, Luxembourg; LV, Latvia; MT, Malta; NL, Netherlands; PL, Poland; PT, Portugal; RO, Romania; SE, Sweden; SI, Slovenia; SK, Slovakia

Descriptive statistics for group metrics, 2022

Group	Characteristics	X₁	X₂	X₃	X₄
I	min.	41.60	10.24	47.93	50.11
	max.	66.00	29.16	83.34	69.39
	mean	51.83	19.41	69.50	59.35
II	min.	29.35	2.40	26.46	30.58
	max.	43.32	10.14	74.67	65.44
	mean	34.86	6.59	50.00	48.55
III	min.	19.01	4.08	10.13	8.59
	max.	25.00	10.81	50.90	41.56
	mean	21.68	8.64	33.94	26.79
IV	min.	13.11	5.51	15.34	6.30
	max.	19.10	10.35	36.78	25.80
	mean	15.65	7.75	22.37	17.28

Coefficient of correlation between the variables in 2015 and 2022

Year	2015			2022
Variable	X₁	X₂	X₃	X₁	X₂	X₃
X₂	0.525^**			0.590^**
X₃	0.795^***	0.351		0.742^***	0.405^*
X₄	0.930^***	0.369	0.574^**	0.859^***	0.351	0.394^*

Metrics for classifying European Union member states in terms of the level of consumption of RES

Variable	Full name
x₁	Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption (total)
x₂	Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption in transport
x₃	Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption in electricity
x₄	Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption in heating and cooling

Groups of European Union member states similar in terms of the development of RES consumption in 2022

Group	Country (acronym)
Group 1	Sweden (SE), Finland (FI), Denmark (DK)
Group 2	Latvia (LV), Austria (AT), Portugal (PT), Estonia (EE), Lithuania (LT), Croatia (HR)
Group 3	Spain (ES), Slovenia (SI), Romania (RO), Germany (DE), Italy (IT), Greece (GR), France (FR), Cyprus (CY)
Group 4	Bulgaria (BG), Netherlands (NL), Malta (MT), Slovakia (SK), Belgium (BE), Czechia (CZ), Poland (PL), Hungary (HU), Luxembourg (LU), Ireland (IE)

Selected total ordering methods

Method	Synthetic variable	Comments
Hellwig	Qi=1−di+d0 {Q_i} = 1 - {{d_i^ + } \over {{d_0}}}	di+=∑j=1m(zij−zj+)2;d0=d¯+2Sd;zij=xij−x¯jsi;zi+=maxizij; d¯=1n∑i=1ndi+;Sd=1n∑i=1ndi+−d¯2 \matrix{ {d_i^ + = \sqrt {\sum\nolimits_{j = 1}^m {{{({z_{ij}} - z_j^ + )}^2}} } ;{d_0} = \bar d + 2{S_d};} \hfill \cr {{z_{ij}} = {{{x_{ij}} - {{\bar x}_j}} \over {{s_i}}};z_i^ + = \mathop {\max }\limits_i {z_{ij}};\bar d = {1 \over n}\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n {d_i^ + } ;} \hfill \cr {{S_d} = \sqrt {{1 \over n}\sum\limits_{i = 1}^n {{{\left( {d_i^ + - \bar d} \right)}^2}} } } \hfill \cr }
TOPSIS	Qi=di−di−+di+ {Q_i} = {{d_i^ - } \over {d_i^ - + d_i^ + }}	di+=∑j=1mzij−zj+2;di−=∑j=1mzij−zj−2;zij=xij∑i=1nxij2−12;zj+=maxizij;zj−=minizij \matrix{ {d_i^ + = \sqrt {\sum\nolimits_{j = 1}^m {{{\left( {{z_{ij}} - z_j^ + } \right)}^2}} } ;d_i^ - = \sqrt {\sum\nolimits_{j = 1}^m {{{\left( {{z_{ij}} - z_j^ - } \right)}^2}} ;} } \hfill \cr {{z_{ij}} = {x_{ij}}{{\left( {\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n {x_{ij}^2} } \right)}^{-{1 \over 2}}};z_j^ + = \mathop {\max }\limits_i {z_{ij}};z_j^ - = \mathop {\min }\limits_i {z_{ij}}} \hfill \cr }
SSW	Qi=1m∑j=1mzij {Q_i} = {1 \over m}\sum\limits_{j = 1}^m {{z_{ij}}}	zij=xij−x¯jSj {z_{ij}} = {{{x_{ij}} - {{\bar x}_j}} \over {{S_j}}}
MUZ	Qi=1m∑j=1mzij {Q_i} = {1 \over m}\sum\limits_{j = 1}^m {{z_{ij}}}	zij=xij−minixijmaxixij−minixij {z_{ij}} = {{{x_{ij}} - \mathop {\min }\limits_i {x_{ij}}} \over {\mathop {\max }\limits_i {x_{ij}} - \mathop {\min }\limits_i {x_{ij}}}}

Values of mpq and u̅p calculated with Eqs (1) and (2)

Method	HELLWIG	TOPSIS	SSW	MUZ	*u̅_p*
HELLWIG	1.000	0.890	0.945	0.918	0.918
TOPSIS	0.890	1.000	0.896	0.885	0.890
SSW	0.945	0.896	1.000	0.962	0.934
MUZ	0.918	0.885	0.962	1.000	0.921

References

Authors

Metrics

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ceej-2026-0010 | Journal eISSN: 2543-6821 | Journal ISSN: 2544-9001

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Language: English

Page range: 172 - 191

Submitted on: Nov 3, 2025

Accepted on: Apr 21, 2026

Published on: Jun 20, 2026

Published by: Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

renewable energy consumption,

European Union

Related subjects:

Business and economics,

Political economics,

Economic theory, systems and structures,

Microeconomics,

Macroeconomics,

Economic policy

© 2026 Krzysztof Adam Firlej, published by Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 13 (2026): Issue 60 (January 2026)

Renewable Energy Consumption in the European Union: Are Nordic Countries in the Lead?

Figures & Tables

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

Descriptive statistics for group metrics, 2022

Coefficient of correlation between the variables in 2015 and 2022

Metrics for classifying European Union member states in terms of the level of consumption of RES

Groups of European Union member states similar in terms of the development of RES consumption in 2022

Selected total ordering methods

Values of mpq and u̅p calculated with Eqs (1) and (2)

Paradigm

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