energies Article Use of Renewable Energy Sources in the European Union and the Visegrad Group Countries—Results of Cluster Analysis El˙ zbieta Kacperska 1 , Katarzyna Lukasiewicz 2 and Piotr Pietrzak 2, *   Citation: Kacperska, E.; Lukasiewicz, K.; Pietrzak, P. Use of Renewable Energy Sources in the European Union and the Visegrad Group Countries—Results of Cluster Analysis. Energies 2021, 14, 5680. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185680 Academic Editor: Eduardo Álvarez Álvarez Received: 4 August 2021 Accepted: 7 September 2021 Published: 9 September 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Institute of Economics and Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland; elzbieta_kacperska@sggw.edu.pl 2 Management Institute, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland; katarzyna_lukasiewicz@sggw.edu.pl * Correspondence: piotr_pietrzak1@sggw.edu.pl Abstract: Increasing the use of renewable energy sources is one of the strategic objectives of the European Union. In this regard, it seems necessary to answer the question: which of the member countries are the most effective in its implementation? Therefore, the main goal was to distinguish groups of European Union countries, including the Visegrad Group, differing in the use of renewable energy sources in transport, electricity, heating and cooling (based on cluster analysis). All members of the EU were determinedly selected for research on 1 February 2020 (27 countries). The research period embraced the years 2009–2019. The sources of materials were the literature on the topic and data from Eurostat. Descriptive, tabular, graphical methods and cluster analysis were used in the presentation and analysis of materials. In 2019 wind and hydro power accounted for two-thirds of the total electricity generated from renewable sources. In 2019, renewable energy sources made up 34% of gross electricity consumption in the EU-27. Wind and hydro power accounted for two-thirds of the total electricity generated from renewable sources (35% each). Moreover, it was determined that there were 5 clusters that differed in their use of renewable energy sources. The highest average renewable energy consumption in transport, heating and cooling in 2019 was characterized by a cluster consisting of Sweden and Finland. In contrast, the highest average renewable energy consumption in electricity was characterized by a cluster consisting of countries such as: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Latvia and Portugal. Finally, in a group that included countries such as Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and the entire VG (Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland), renewable energy consumption rates (in transport, electricity, heating and cooling) were lower than the EU average (27 countries). Keywords: sustainability; renewable energy sources; European Union; Visegrad Group; cluster anal- ysis 1. Introduction During the last three decades, the fashionable concept in environmental discourse has been “sustainable development” (SD). “It has spawned a vast literature and has strengthened the arm of empire builders in many research institutes, Universities, national and international bureaucracies and statistical offices” [1] (p. 191). SD is also a fundamental and overarching objective of the European Union (EU), enshrined in Article 3 of the Treaty on EU. Since 2005 Eurostat has regularly produced biennial monitoring reports of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS), based on the EU set of Sustainable Development Indicators (SDIs). The concept of SD has also been constantly criticized, mostly due to the inconsistency of mixing economic expansion and natural system preservation in one concept [2]. It was also mentioned that “there is no agreement on a comprehensive sustainable development theory, there are different contested theoretical approaches and definitions” [3] (p. 468). Nonetheless, the scientific community has agreed that SD is governed by a dynamic Energies 2021, 14, 5680. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185680 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies