According to a new report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the Europan Union needs to generate more electricity from wind and solar energy in order to achieve the renewable energy objectives for 2020. Although both wind and solar energy have registered strong growth since 2005, there has been a slowdown since 2014.

One of the main objectives of the European Union is to produce one fifth of its energy from renewable sources for electricity, heating, cooling and transport by 2020. The wind and solar photovoltaic sectors currently represent the largest share of renewable electricity, and the decrease in costs makes them an increasingly competitive alternative to the burning of fossil fuels.

ECA works auditng the EU's finances. The starting point for its audit work is the EU's budget and policies, primarily in areas relating to growth and jobs, added value, public finances, the environment and climate action. The ECA audits the budget in terms of both revenue and spending.

Regarding this report, the auditors visited some eu-countries such as Germany, Greece, Spain and Poland for reviewing whether financial support for the generation of electricity from wind and solar energy had been effective. The study found that the initial support systems had been excessively subsidized in a number of cases, resulting in higher electricity prices or an increase in state deficits. When the state members reduced the supports, the investor confidence and the market were slowed. For that reason, improve the conditions for participation in the renewable energy market.

They also affirm that in 2017 half of the Member States had approached their national renewable energy objectives by 2020 but warn that the other half will require a much greater effort to achieve them. The auditors doubt whether the efforts of the most advanced countries in the field of renewable energies will be enough to compensate those of the laggards and achieve finally the overall EU objective.

For achieving the 2030 objectives, the auditors defend that the countries must define national objectives and offer a considerable amount of public and private national funding.