How to compare renewable electricity shares

Two percentages that sound alike

The share of electricity generated from renewable sources is not the same as the renewable share of gross electricity consumption. Generation is about what power plants produce inside a territory. Consumption-based measures also interact with imports and exports. Eurostat explicitly warns against treating its net-generation share as the Renewable Energy Directive indicator for gross electricity consumption.

The Eurostat SHARES methodology also normalises some hydro and wind production and applies sustainability rules to renewable combustible fuels. Those rules can move a country result even when the underlying electricity system has not changed. The distinction matters most when readers use a chart to judge progress against a policy target.

Publisher documentation: Eurostat — Renewable energy share metadata · Eurostat — Generation versus consumption methodology

Build a fair time-series comparison

Pick a publisher and a single definition for every country in the chart. Confirm whether the published series measures generation, gross consumption or all final energy, which also includes uses beyond electricity. Do not splice those measures into one line. Use the same years and unit, mark provisional observations and link the exact dataset rather than a generic energy homepage.

If the goal is to compare countries outside a common statistical system, say when definitions differ. A compact table of dataset, denominator and coverage can be more honest than a smooth chart built from unlike series. Show the original share in percentage points when describing the change; “doubled” can obscure a small starting value.

• Write the question as “share of what, produced or consumed, in which years?”
• Check the indicator metadata for the numerator, denominator and treatment of imports and exports.
• Use the same annual series for all places where possible; disclose missing or provisional values.
• Place the dataset code and publisher link next to the chart and keep the calculation reproducible.

Inspect a source-linked example

The unedited Humaps example compares renewable electricity in Germany, France and Spain over a decade. Open it to see the answer, chart and cited sources, then check its exact measure before reusing a number. Ask Atlas a new question if you need another region or the newest available year.