Share of renewable energy in Poland compared to EU countries

The paper analyses changes that occurred in production of renewable energy in EU countries in 2004-2017 with special focus on Poland. Forecasts of renewable energy shares in total gross energy consumption for 2020 were calculated for EU and individual member states to verify whether it is possible to achieve the goals determined in Europe 2020 strategy. It is probable that the goal for EU will be achieved, however, a lot of countries will face difficulties in meeting it, and some other countries simply have no chances to meet the goal. Unfortunately, Poland is among the last group of countries. There are also states that have achieved the goal determined for 2020 much earlier, for example Bulgaria, Estonia or Sweden. In the next step, development of the renewable energy share in final consumption in power industry, in heating and cooling, as well as in transport is analysed. Based on this, using the method of k-means, a group of countries that in 2004 and in 2017 were leaders in this sphere, but still have a lot to do to reach high level of share of renewable energy is identified. The group of leaders in 2004 and 2017 slightly changed. Estonia and Lithuania joined Denmark, Croatia, Latvia, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden. Poland still has a lot to do to reach the European level of renewable energy share, however the trend of renewable energy share that has been observed since 2012 is really alarming.