EU’s 2021 green energy products imports included $3.52M of renewable fuels

In Belgium, in 2021, the EU spent €15.2 billion on imports of green energy products (including wind turbines, solar panels and liquid biofuels) from countries outside the EU. Meanwhile, the EU exported green energy products worth more than half this amount (€6.5 billion) to countries outside the EU.

Specifically, the EU imported €11.2 billion worth of solar panels, €3.4 billion worth of liquid biofuels and €0.6 billion worth of wind turbines from countries outside the EU. The value of imports of solar panels and liquid biofuels was much greater than the corresponding value of EU exports of these goods to countries outside the EU (exports amounted to €2.0 billion and €1.3 billion, respectively). In contrast, the value of exports of wind turbines to non-EU countries was far greater than the value of imports (€3.3 billion).

Exports of liquid biofuels only totalled €0.5 billion in 2012 and grew to € 1.7 billion in 2019. However, in the last two years these exports decreased, falling to €1.3 billion in 2021.