Current state of renewable energies performances in the European Union: A new reference framework

•A common mathematic model, based on historical values, defines future trends.•Luxembourg, Ireland and Netherlands do not reach their 2020 national targets.•The selected indexes significantly influences the ranking of European countries.•Sweden, Finland, Austria and Latvia have a dominant position.•Ten countries have a value greater than the EU 28 average for each index analysed.

Initially pushed by the European Union (EU) through the Europe 2020 strategy, the development of renewable energies is a strategic action aiming to limit climate changes and cut greenhouse gas emissions. National subsidies favored the diffusion of this new kind of energy sources, even if there are interesting economic opportunities also in non-subsidized markets. Renewable energy (RE) is a sustainable choice, but its management requires a proper analysis, both from political and operational levels. The aim of this paper is the assessment of European renewable energy source (RES) trajectory towards 2020, starting from historical values and through common scientific methods. In addition, a new reference framework is proposed, in order to evaluate RESs performances in Europe. The framework is based on three indicators: (i) share of energy from RESs in gross final energy consumption, (ii) REs primary production per capita and (iii) gross final consumption of REs per capita. Results could have practical implications for the decision makers involved in the management of energy sources throughout Europe and could be used for the comparison on a global scale.