In 2009, renewable energy supplied an estimated 16% of global final energy consumption – counting traditional biomass, hydropower, wind, solar, geothermal, modern biomass, and biofuels.
The following graph is illustrative: 
In 2010 in the EU27, energy from renewable sources was estimated to have contributed 12.4% of gross final energy, compared with 11.7% in 2009 and 10.5% in 2008. It is expected that the EU will reach the target of a 20% share of total energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020.
The main reason is that up to recently the production and use of RES was very expensive compared with fossil fuels. Moreover, RES are not a guaranteed energy source; take for instance a sudden drop of wind speed or a cloudy day. In addition, in order to better exploit some RES, installations have to be built in remote areas, thus making the job of connecting them to the main grid both expensive and difficult.
However, things are changing rapidly. Policies came into place that helped the increase of demand for RES worldwide, which in turn resulted in a rapid decrease in their production costs. Considering the increase in oil and gas prices in the last years and the incentives provided by governments you can easily realize why the growth of RES is here to stay.
Wouldn’t it be fascinating to produce all our energy needs by renewable energy sources? One thing is sure, the technology already exists and we have the motives to do so. In fact we may not be so far away from achieving that! The EU 2050 energy roadmap
3 states that "The share of RES rises substantially in all scenarios, achieving at least 55% in gross final energy consumption in 2050. The share of RES in electricity consumption reaches 64% in a High Energy Efficiency scenario and 97% in a High Renewables Scenario that includes significant electricity storage to accommodate varying RES supply even at times of low demand".
Several other associations and governments claim that the goal of energy produced 100% by renewables is feasible in the next decades. Here however, the key issue is electricity storage, a task not so easy. Since the energy from renewables is not continuous or controllable we have to store the electric energy which is produced in periods of availability of RES to be used when there is a shortage of it. This can be done using advanced technologies like superconductor energy storage systems, supercapacitors, hydrogen storage, compressed energy storage, hybrid power plants consisting of renewables and hydro pump storage, to name just a few. Could it be the answer in the quest for a 100% RES share? This remains to be seen.
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