Dataosity Trails

Studio piece · Energy · EU-27, 2024

Ireland grows wind like few others. Its roots are still fossil.

Each flower below is one EU country's electricity in 2024. Petals above the ground are low-carbon sources; the root below is fossil fuel. The bigger the petal, the bigger its share of everything that country generated.

37%of Ireland's electricity came from wind, third in the EU
53%came from fossil fuels, the fourth-highest share in the EU
NuclearHydroWindSolarBioenergyFossil fuelsground

How to read a flower. Petal area is proportional to each source's share of electricity generated.

Where Ireland stands

Of the EU's three leading wind countries, only Ireland still runs mostly on fossil fuels

Each dot is one country: wind's share of its electricity runs across, fossil fuels' share runs up.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%0%20%40%60%80%Wind share of electricity →↑ Fossil fuel shareSweden: wind 24%, fossil 1%Finland: wind 25%, fossil 4%France: wind 8%, fossil 5%Luxembourg: wind 17%, fossil 5%Denmark: wind 58%, fossil 10%Austria: wind 11%, fossil 13%Portugal: wind 28%, fossil 14%Slovakia: wind 0%, fossil 14%Lithuania: wind 43%, fossil 14%Spain: wind 22%, fossil 23%Belgium: wind 18%, fossil 23%Slovenia: wind 0%, fossil 24%Hungary: wind 2%, fossil 26%Latvia: wind 4%, fossil 26%Croatia: wind 17%, fossil 27%Bulgaria: wind 4%, fossil 29%Romania: wind 12%, fossil 33%Czechia: wind 1%, fossil 42%Germany: wind 27%, fossil 42%Estonia: wind 18%, fossil 43%Netherlands: wind 27%, fossil 46%Italy: wind 8%, fossil 49%Greece: wind 21%, fossil 51%Poland: wind 14%, fossil 69%Cyprus: wind 4%, fossil 76%Malta: wind 0%, fossil 85%DenmarkLithuaniaMaltaCyprusPolandNetherlandsGermanySwedenFranceIreland37% wind, 53% fossil
Source: Eurostat, gross electricity production, 2024.

The garden, from cleanest to most fossil-heavy

27 EU countries · gross electricity generation, 2024

Cleanest

Sweden

Barely a root at all: 1% fossil. Hydro (37%), nuclear (29%) and wind (24%) share the work.

One big petal

France

Two-thirds nuclear (67%). A garden-sized flower, two-thirds of it from a single source.

Wind country

Denmark

58% of Denmark's electricity came from wind, the largest wind petal in the EU.

The story

Ireland

A wind petal (37%) bigger than almost anyone's, yet a root (53%) longer than all but three EU countries. Gas alone made 48% of Ireland's electricity.

Biggest economy

Germany

Wind (27%) and solar (15%) bloom, but 42% of its electricity still came from fossil fuels.

Most fossil-heavy

Malta

Almost all root: 85% fossil, with solar (15%) the only sizeable petal.

Method

  • Shares are of gross electricity production in GWh, by fuel, for 2024.
  • Petal area is proportional to share (petal length scales with its square root), so a petal twice the area means twice the share.
  • Low-carbon petals: nuclear, hydro, wind, solar photovoltaic and bioenergy. Fossil fuels are coal, gas, oil and other fossil sources combined.
  • Hydro is shown as Eurostat reports it. Small sources (geothermal, non-renewable waste, other fuels) are not drawn. Luxembourg's large undrawn share (45%) is production outside these six source groups.
  • Countries are ordered by fossil share, lowest first. The gas figure for Ireland uses Eurostat's natural gas category from the same table.

Source and data

Eurostat, Electricity and derived heat production by type of fuel (nrg_bal_peh), gross electricity production, GWh, 2024. Dataset updated 2 June 2026; retrieved 30 October 2026.

Get the data (CSV) 

geo,country,total_gwh,wind_gwh,solar_gwh,hydro_gwh,bio_gwh,nuclear_gwh,fossil_gwh
BE,Belgium,77157,13825,8562,546,3628,31255,17729
BG,Bulgaria,38535,1377,5489,2787,1716,15777,11212
CZ,Czechia,73900,717,3593,2663,5379,29696,30812
DK,Denmark,35318,20553,3776,23,7335,0,3631
DE,Germany,514009,138914,75379,23825,52448,0,215078
EE,Estonia,6368,1166,1065,30,1337,0,2769
IE,Ireland,31493,11650,1093,766,1018,0,16607
EL,Greece,57924,12136,11258,3582,715,0,29747
ES,Spain,287915,62090,53752,34415,6218,54532,65706
FR,France,570904,47499,25063,71116,12012,380451,27634
HR,Croatia,15360,2577,820,6727,1004,0,4081
IT,Italy,271007,22322,35993,53131,17881,0,133569
CY,Cyprus,5763,203,1108,0,55,0,4397
LV,Latvia,6322,276,536,3209,634,0,1666
LT,Lithuania,8092,3448,1397,437,985,0,1160
LU,Luxembourg,2742,467,360,105,442,0,133
HU,Hungary,37987,659,9200,231,1847,16017,9886
MT,Malta,2186,0,327,0,9,0,1850
NL,Netherlands,123844,33509,21822,85,7146,3574,56995
AT,Austria,82407,9257,8143,45707,4683,0,10958
PL,Poland,172453,24945,17663,2115,7952,0,118650
PT,Portugal,51089,14419,7088,14893,3752,0,7035
RO,Romania,53376,6350,3423,14193,476,10912,17703
SI,Slovenia,16993,7,1268,5336,259,5836,3999
SK,Slovakia,30070,5,694,4826,1583,18232,4201
FI,Finland,83153,21046,940,14299,10394,32599,3623
SE,Sweden,172367,40621,4163,64615,10183,50665,2072