Renewable energy sources met 48% of the European Union’s power demand in 2025, while solar and wind squeaked past oil, gas, and coal as the continent’s biggest source of electricity, according to a data summary released today.

Renewables dominated in a year when “unusual weather conditions” brought down hydropower and wind production but boosted solar, the UK-based Ember think tank reports in its latest European Electricity Review. Fossil fuels declined to 29% from a threshold of more than 40% as recently as 2017. Solar grew by more than 20% for the fourth year in a row, producing a record 13% of the EU’s power supply in 2025, above both coal and hydro.

With 369 terawatt-hours (TWh) of output, wind and solar outpaced fossil-fired power in 14 of the 27 EU countries, pointing to a structural shift under way across the continent.

“This milestone moment shows just how rapidly the EU is moving towards a power system backed by wind and solar,” report author Dr. Beatrice Petrovich said in a release. “As fossil fuel dependencies feed instability on the global stage, the stakes of transitioning to clean energy are clearer than ever.”

Electricity delivered 23% of the end use energy that reached European consumers in 2024, Petrovich said in an email. The EU has set an “indicative target” for that total to hit 32% by 2030, and some planning models have it rising to 50% by 2040.

Last year’s analysis shows the loss of some hydropower output leading to an 8% increase in gas-fired power production, enough to increase the cost of EU gas imports by 16%, to €32 billion.

“This is the first increase in gas import costs for power since the 2022 energy crisis, with Italy and Germany paying the most,” Ember writes. “Hours with the most gas use drove electricity price spikes, with average prices for those hours rising by 11% across the EU compared to 2024.”

Even so, the think tank says gas in the EU “remains in long-term decline,” with consumption last year down 18% from its peak in 2019.

Coal fell to a “new historic low” of just 9.2% of power generation, down from nearly 25% just a decade ago.

“The next priority for the EU should be to put a serious dent in reliance on expensive, imported gas,” Petrovich. said in the release. “Gas not only makes the EU more vulnerable to energy blackmail, it’s also driving up prices. In 2025 we saw some early signs of using more battery storage to shift homegrown renewable power to gas-heavy hours. As this trend accelerates it could limit how much gas is needed in evening hours, therefore stabilizing prices.”

Despite the increase in gas demand in 2025, and Canadian Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson touting liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Germany in “as little as five years” if market conditions permit, Petrovich said there are still questions about the EU’s need for additional imports.

“As geopolitics continues to destabilize, the risks of excessive reliance on fossil imports, especially imported LNG, are clearer than ever,” she told The Energy Mix. “This will impact gas demand, as the EU strives to boost energy autonomy to be more resilient.”

The EU’s “surging battery pipeline” in 2025 also pointed to the potential to limit reliance on costly gas, and “the economics make investment in batteries more attractive than ever,” she wrote.

Faster adoption of renewable electricity will give the EU a competitive edge on the global stage, helping it to withstand tariff threats and potential land grabs in Greenland at the hands of Donald Trump.

“Strong wind and solar, paired with batteries and an enhanced power grid, make the EU more resilient to energy blackmail from fossil exporters, including the U.S.,” Petrovich told The Mix. “This is increasingly acknowledged by EU leaders, as reliance on imported fossil fuels has been repetitively used as a weapon against Europe.”

The U.S.’s recent behaviour, “including tariff threats and interventions linked to fossil fuel interests, have heightened concerns over gas reliance and exposure to fossil price volatility, pushing energy autonomy higher on the EU agenda,” she added.