Costa Rica, Denmark, Scotland, Sweden, Finland: Renewable Leaders

5 Countries Leading the Shift Away From Fossil Fuels (2016)

In the mid-2010s, five countries stood out for how quickly they were moving away from fossil fuels: Costa Rica, Denmark, Scotland, Sweden and Finland. Costa Rica was producing almost all of its electricity from renewable sources, Denmark was getting around 40 per cent of its power from wind, Scotland was closing in on its renewable electricity targets, and Sweden and Finland were drawing a large share of their total energy from forests, hydropower and wind.

None of them had quit fossil fuels completely. Cars, lorries, planes and some industry still ran largely on oil. But they showed that a modern economy can keep the lights on mostly with clean power. Here is what each country was doing around 2015–2016, what the headline claims got right and wrong, and how far they have come since.

Costa Rica: a grid run on rain, volcanoes and wind

Costa Rica became the poster child for renewable electricity in 2015, when news reports celebrated 75 straight days without burning fossil fuels for power. In 2016 the country went 110 consecutive days on renewables alone, and over the full year about 98 per cent of its electricity came from clean sources.

The secret is geography. Heavy tropical rainfall feeds hydroelectric dams, which supply roughly two-thirds of the country's electricity. Volcanic heat drives geothermal plants, providing around 13 per cent, and wind adds about 17 per cent, according to 2019 figures. Biomass and solar make up a small remainder.

The common headline that Costa Rica had "gone 100 per cent green" needs a correction. That figure referred to electricity only. Transport still depends heavily on imported petroleum, which accounts for most of the country's fossil-fuel emissions; in 2014, fossil fuels still made up roughly half of Costa Rica's total energy use. The country has set itself carbon-neutrality goals and is promoting electric transport to tackle that gap. Hydropower also has a weakness: dry years reduce output and occasionally force the grid to lean on oil-fired backup.

Denmark: the home of modern wind power

Denmark helped invent the modern wind industry in the 1970s, after the oil crises exposed how dependent it was on imported fuel. The country's first commercial capacity appeared in the late 1970s, and Danish companies went on to become global leaders in turbine manufacturing.

In 2014 wind supplied a record 39 per cent of Danish electricity consumption, rising to 42 per cent in 2015. On the evening of 9 July 2015, wind output reached 116 per cent of national consumption, and by 3 a.m. the next morning it passed 140 per cent of demand, with the surplus flowing to neighbouring countries through grid links. That night was widely reported as evidence of what wind could do, though it was a peak, not a typical day.

The trend has continued. By 2024 wind made up nearly 60 per cent of Denmark's electricity generation. The government has set a target of fully renewable electricity by 2030 and a long-term vision of independence from fossil fuels by 2050.

Scotland: wind, waves and a vanishing coal fleet

Scotland's windy coasts and hills give it some of the best renewable resources in Europe. December 2014 was a record month for Scottish wind power: turbines delivered about 1.28 million MWh to the grid, equal to 164 per cent of the electricity needs of Scottish households, or enough for nearly four million homes. Over the whole of 2014, wind produced the equivalent of 98 per cent of household needs, and in six separate months it beat 100 per cent. In June and July, homes with rooftop solar in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness generated all or more of their own electricity needs.

One widely shared version of this story said Scottish wind had produced "almost 1,300 MWh" in December. That was a slip of units: 1,300 megawatt-hours would power only a few thousand homes for a month. The real total was about a thousand times larger. Note too that "household needs" leaves out industry and business, which is why it differs from the share of all electricity used.

In 2015 renewables generated the equivalent of 59 per cent of Scotland's electricity consumption, beating the interim goal of 50 per cent. The government aimed for 100 per cent by 2020 and came very close, with renewables meeting about 97 per cent of demand that year. In January 2024 official figures confirmed that renewables had generated the equivalent of 113 per cent of Scotland's electricity consumption, the highest share on record, with the surplus exported to the rest of Britain.

The country is also investing in offshore wind and in wave and tidal power, which are still at an early stage but suit its coastline.

Sweden: carbon tax and bioenergy

Sweden took one of the boldest policy steps early. In January 1991 it introduced a carbon tax on oil, coal, natural gas, petrol and domestic aviation fuel, and it has raised the rate many times since. Economists often cite it as proof that carbon pricing can coexist with economic growth.

Much of Sweden's progress comes from bioenergy, especially by-products of its huge forestry industry, used to heat homes through district heating networks and to power industry. Reports around 2010 said bioenergy had overtaken oil as the country's largest source of final energy use. Hydropower supplies more than half of Sweden's electricity, and nuclear power most of the rest, so the power sector is almost entirely low-carbon.

Renewables made up 52.6 per cent of Sweden's final energy consumption in 2014, the highest share in the European Union. By 2022 that share had reached about 66 per cent. A cross-party agreement in 2016 set a goal of 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2040, and Sweden aims to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. Transport remains the hardest sector to clean up.

Finland: forests first, wind catching up

Finland's renewable story starts in its forests. Wood and residues from the paper and timber industries are the country's largest renewable energy source, providing heat and power for both factories and towns. Hydropower adds a smaller share.

By 2011 about 34 per cent of Finland's final energy came from renewables, and the European Union set the country a target of 38 per cent by 2020. Finland overshot it, reaching around 44.6 per cent in 2020. Wind has been the fastest-growing source: from a small base in the mid-2010s, it overtook hydropower in 2024 to become Finland's second-largest source of electricity, after nuclear.

Finland's approach shows that the path away from fossil fuels does not have to look the same everywhere. It combines renewables with nuclear power, which is low-carbon but not renewable, and remains debated among environmentalists.

What these five countries have in common

They used what nature gave them. Rain and volcanoes in Costa Rica, wind in Denmark and Scotland, forests and rivers in Sweden and Finland.
They planned for decades. Denmark's wind industry and Sweden's carbon tax were policies of the 1970s to 1990s that paid off much later.
They are connected to neighbours. Grid links let Denmark and Scotland export surplus wind power and import electricity when the wind drops.
Electricity came first. All five cleaned up their power sectors faster than transport, heating or heavy industry.

Myths about going fossil-free

"100 per cent renewable electricity means a country no longer uses fossil fuels." Not so. Electricity is only part of energy use. Most of these countries still burn oil for transport.

"Renewables can't keep a modern grid stable." Denmark and Scotland run grids with very high shares of wind, helped by interconnectors, flexible hydropower in neighbouring countries and better forecasting. It requires investment, but it works.

"Small countries' success doesn't matter globally." Their total emissions are small, but they served as test beds. Technologies proven in Denmark, such as large offshore wind farms, are now built around the world.

A decade on, the leaders of 2016 have mostly kept moving in the same direction. The remaining challenge for all of them is the harder part: replacing oil in vehicles, ships and planes, and fossil fuels in industry.

Sources: Wikipedia: Renewable energy in Costa Rica; Wikipedia: Wind power in Denmark; Wikipedia: Renewable energy in Scotland; Wikipedia: Renewable energy in Sweden; Wikipedia: Renewable energy in Finland; CleanTechnica: Scotland's renewable energy year (January 2015). Originally compiled by The Mind Unleashed.

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