2020

Latvia among Leaders in the Renewable Energy Consumption

The latest data of Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, show that in 2018, renewable energy accounted for 21% of the total energy that was used for heating and cooling needs in the European Union. It is an increase of two times over the past 14 years thanks to the growth of renewable energy consumption in manufacturing, services and households. Latvia, consuming 56% of renewable energy for heating and cooling, ranks second, just behind Sweden.  

“Annual wood increase in Latvia`s forests exceeds 26 million cubic metres per year. It not only facilitates the production of different wood products such as boards, furniture, windows, doors and houses, but can also potentially allow for the replacement of fossil energy with wood biomass, to further reduce Latvia`s dependence on fossil energy carriers,” says Tomass Kotovičs, Head of LVM Communication Unit. He also added that the strategic goal of the forest industry is to increase forest productivity in Latvia by 25%, thus promoting the use of renewable energy and moving towards country`s energy independence.

Data of the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia show that the main type of renewable energy in Latvia is fuelwood: firewood, wood residue, woodchips, wood briquettes, wood pellets.

The overall consumption of fuelwood over the past five years has increased by 11.1 % reaching 62.2 petajoules (PJ) in 2018. As compared to 2017, it has increased by 4.5 %. In 2018, as compared to 2017, the production of woodchips increased by 10.8%, which was promoted by their use for the manufacturing of wood pellets. In 2018, Latvia exported 30.9 PJ of wood pellets, which is 9.9 % more than in 2017.

Households are the biggest consumers of fuelwood. In 2018, their consumption accounted for 36% of the total consumption of fuelwood, and, as compared to 2017, it has increased by 6.1%, reaching 22.4 PJ.

In 2018, Latvia ranked third in the European Union in terms of the share of consumption of renewable energy (40.6%), just behind Sweden (54.6%) and Finland (41.2%). In 2018, the proportion of green energy in Latvia exceeded the set goal by 0.3 percent points, namely, that the proportion of green energy should amount to 40% by the year 2020.