Using MCDM Methods to Assess the Extent to which the European Union Countries Use Renewable Energy

Abstract

Abstract Energy security is one of the basic tasks carried out by individual countries. It is of great socio-economic and political importance and constitutes the basis for independent development of both economies and groups of countries. Access to adequate resources of affordable and environmentally neutral energy in the production process is the basis for sustainable energy development. Therefore, an important element of sustainable energy is its environmental neutrality. Currently, this condition is fulfilled to the greatest extent by energy produced from renewable energy sources (RES). Renewable energy development is taking place all over the world, but the European Union (EU) is a definite leader. In its energy policy, the importance and role of RES in the energy production structure has been growing systematically for many years. Introduced regulations and energy strategies caused member states to take extensive actions to achieve the set targets for RES. However, the large diversity of the EU countries makes this process occur with different intensity. Thus, it was justified to conduct research to assess the level of renewable energy use in the EU countries in a 15-year perspective (2004-2019). The research was based on a set of 4 indicators characterizing the use of renewable energy in the EU countries by means of the WASPAS method (from the group of MCDM methods). The results showed that a high level of RES use in the whole studied period was found in Sweden, Austria, Latvia and Finland, and a low level, for 2004, was found in Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta, and for 2019 – in Luxembourg and Malta.