Wind and solar account for around half of all jobs in the EU’s green sector, employing 236,600 and 273,500 people respectively.
According to Bruegel’s new Clean Tech Tracker, Germany leads the bloc with over 310,000 jobs.
Most of them are in the wind sector (124,600) and in the solar market (85,400)
France comes next with nearly 86,000 green tech employees, mostly spread across wind (22,100), hydro (19,600) and bioenergy (23,200).
Splain ranks third in the EU with 67,200 jobs. The vast majority of its green tech workforce is in the solar market (26,320). The same goes for fourth-placed Italy, where nearly 20,000 of its jobs are in that niche.
Currently, renewables make up about a quarter of all energy used in the EU (24.5% according to Eurostat) and support nearly 950,000 jobs in total.
EV remain EU’s most profitable exported green energy good
Since the beginning of the century, the fastest-growing energy source has been wind, which rose by 451Tw/h across the EU, followed by solar and gas.
The biggest decliners over the same period have been coal (-481Tw/h) and nuclear (-240Tw/h).
The Bruegel report also looks at EV manufacturing capacity.
Germany is by far the leader with over 2 million, and a projection to exceed 2.7 million. France is second with 400,000 but it may soon be overtaken by Spain, which plans to reach over 1 million.
Among green energy goods, electric vehicles were the most profitable export in 2024, bringing in over €38 billion, followed by EV charging (€12bn) and batteries (€11bn).
Hungary scales up batteries and boosts solar
When it comes to battery cell capacity, Hungary currently holds the top spot with an operational capacity of 87.5 Gw, closely followed by Poland at 86.5.
Germany projects to surpass Poland by reaching a capacity of nearly 180Gw, while Budapest is expected to retain the lead with volumes increasing to nearly 190Gw, driven by considerable Chinese investments in the country.
However, experts cast doubts on the long-term success given that Europe’s EV demand has been struggling to take off in recent years.
Hungary is also excelling on the solar front. It has the highest share of energy produced by photovoltaic panels among all 27 EU countries: 24.6%.
In less than 10 years, Hungary increased its solar energy capacity 65-fold: From 89Mw to 5,8 Kw, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Who are the biggest renewable energy producers in Europe?
Currently, European states produce about 1.47 million Gw/h of renewable energy, roughly the same as Canada, Greenland, the US, and Mexico combined (1.49 Gw/h).
According to IRENA, Germany is the largest producer in Europe with 251,000 Gw/h, followed by Norway (143,461), the UK (135,159), Spain (122,960) and Sweden (118,227).
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