The European Union's statistics office said on Tuesday that the share of renewable energy in final consumption in 2015, the last year for which data are available, was 16.7 percent, twice the level from 2004 and only about 3 percentage points away from its 2020 target.

The target to be reached by 2020 for the EU is a share of 20 percent energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy.

Sweden in 2015 had by far the highest share of renewable energy which stood at 53.9 percent, ahead of Finland, Latvia, Austria and Denmark.

At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportions of renewables were registered in Luxembourg and Malta, both at 5 percent.

Renewable energy available for final consumption increased by 68 percent between 2005 and 2015, Eurostat reported.

"Renewables will continue to play a key role in helping the EU meet its energy needs beyond 2020. For this reason, Member states have already agreed on a new EU renewable energy target of at least 27 percent by 2030," the report read.

Source: Xinhua