Production of Electricity at the European Union Level vs. Romania

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to carry out a quantitative analysis of the electricity production at the level of the European Union (EU) and in Romania, in the period of 2011-2020. To address the current environmental concerns, the package “Fit for 55” proposes that by 2050, most of the energy production will have to come from renewable sources, but the question is whether this desideratum can indeed be achieved. Among the methods used in scientific research, the quantitative analysis was selected and applied in this paper, in order to carry out a detailed statistical analysis on the trend of increase or decrease in the electricity production from different energy resources, and then comparative analysis was performed, so as to draw relevant conclusions in this respect. Through this study, it can be found that, at the level of the European Union, the electricity production from renewable energy resources is increasing, while that from solid fossil fuels is decreasing. In Romania, the same trend of increase and decrease can be observed, except on a smaller scale. Accordingly, the greatest increase in electricity production was recorded from renewable energy resources, for both the EU and Romania, while the biggest decrease in electricity production from fossil fuels. In order to address the decarbonization of the energy system in Romania, the hypothesis that the decrease in total electricity production is due to the decrease in electricity production from solid fossil fuels was tested. However, this hypothesis was only partially confirmed, since the production of electricity from other energy resources, apart from renewable resources and natural gas, also experienced a similar downward trend.