As Air Conditioning Spreads, EU Home-Cooling Energy Has Doubled Since 2018 — Portugal Ranks Ninth
New Eurostat figures show EU households roughly doubled the energy they spent cooling their homes between 2018 and 2024, driven by fiercer heatwaves and spreading air conditioning. Portugal ranked ninth in absolute cooling use — a mid-table position that looks set to climb as summers lengthen.
As Portugal settles into another sweltering summer, new figures from Eurostat put a number on a shift many households already feel in their electricity bills: the energy Europeans burn to keep their homes cool has roughly doubled in just six years.
Across the European Union, household energy consumption for cooling in 2024 was about twice what it was in 2018, the EU statistics agency reported this week. The climb has been almost relentless — consumption rose in every year of that stretch except 2020 and 2023 — tracking a run of fierce heatwaves and the steady spread of air conditioning into homes that once managed without it.
Where Portugal sits
In absolute terms, the heaviest coolers are the large southern economies. Italy led the EU with around 26,300 terajoules of energy used for residential cooling in 2024, followed by Spain at roughly 14,300 and Greece at about 11,900. Portugal ranked ninth, at approximately 1,250 terajoules — a mid-table position that reflects both its smaller population and the fact that air conditioning, while spreading fast, is still far from universal in Portuguese homes.
Measured as a share of total household energy use, the picture tilts toward the hottest, most humid corners of the bloc. Cooling accounts for about 16% of home energy in Cyprus and 15% in Malta, the highest anywhere in the EU, compared with 7.4% in Greece, 2.5% in Spain and 2.3% in Italy. “As days grow warmer, air conditioning plays an increasingly important role in how people cope with the heat,” Eurostat noted.
A bill and a grid to watch
The trend carries a double edge. Air conditioning brings genuine relief — and, during extreme heat, real protection for the elderly and the sick — but it also drives up household bills and piles demand onto the electricity grid at the very moment the sun is fiercest. That summer peak is becoming as much of a planning headache for utilities as the traditional winter one.
For Portugal, where many older houses were built for shade and thick walls rather than powered cooling, the direction of travel is clear. As summers lengthen and more residents — locals and newcomers alike — install AC units, the country's cooling demand looks set to keep rising. That makes the efficiency of the appliances people buy, and the strength of the grid that feeds them, questions worth confronting well before the next heatwave arrives.
