EurObserv’ER has been gathering data on the European Union’s renewable energy sources for eighteen years for its themebased barometer reports on the state of the sectors and their momentum. The first part of this work is a summary of the barometers published in 2017 for the wind energy, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, biofuel, biogas and solid biomass sectors.

EurObserv’ER has been gathering data on the European Union’s renewable energy sources for eighteen years for its themebased barometer reports on the state of the sectors and their momentum. The first part of this work is a summary of the barometers published in 2018 for the wind energy, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, biofuel, heat pumps and solid biomass sectors.
The energy indicators drawn from these barometers have been updated with Eurostat (downloaded on 31st January 2019) and SHARES 2017 (downloaded on 4th February 2019) and supplemented by data on the sectors for which no individual barometers were published – small hydropower, biogas, geothermal energy, concentrated solar power, household refuse incineration and renewable marine energy sources.

The following chapters supply socioeconomic indicators on employment and turnover, investments, avoided CO2 emissions and resulting avoided expenses thanks to the development of the RES sectors.

Another part gives an overview of how the EU performs in terms of R&D as compared to its main trading partners.

A final chapter shows that there still is quite enough flexibility in the electricity grid to allow for the integration of more RES-E.