Nuclear power, renewables make up half of EU energy production

Nuclear energy and renewables accounted for more than half of energy production in EU countries in 2012, with France the largest nuclear producer and Germany the largest renewables producer, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union said on Monday. The domestic production of primary energy was 794 million tones of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in the EU in 2012. Nuclear energy accounted for the largest share with 29 percent of the total, followed by renewables with 22 percent, solid fuels (21 percent), gas (17 percent) and oil (10 percent). France and Germany were the largest producers of nuclear energy with a production of 110 Mtoe accounting for 48 percent of the total EU nuclear energy and 26 Mtoe with 11 percent respectively. As for the renewables, it was Germany (33 Mtoe, 19 percent) the largest producer, followed by France (21 Mtoe, 12 percent), Sweden (19 Mtoe, 10 percent), Italy (18 Mtoe,10 percent), and spain (14 Mtoe, 8 pecent). Poland and Germany were the largest producers of solid fuel, Britain of crude oil, the Netherlands and Britain of gas. The five main energy producers in the EU were France, German, Britain, Poland and the Netherlands, which together accounted for 64 percent of total energy production in the EU.