The given line chart illustrates the proportion of renewable energy generated in 5 particular countries in the period of 40 years between 1971 and 2006.
From an overall perspective, it is readily apparent that while the figure for Finland, Denmark and the United States fluctuated significantly, the rest of the nations had a tendency to increase over the period. In addition, the percentage of alternative energy in Finland topped the list, compared to that in the United Kingdom, which was the lowest category.
At the onset, the proportion of alternative sources of energy used in Finland reached the peak at 25% before dropping to approximately 16% in 1986, then gradually increased and recovered nearly 25%, remaining the highest data. Denmark generated a lower proportion of renewable energy in 1971, accounting at 15%, in comparison to the United States at a considerably low rate at only 2%. There was a significant fluctuation in the figures for Denmark and the United States between 1981-1996 and finally ranked the third and second with roughly 18% and 17%, in that order.
For the France category, the percentage of renewable sources generated stood at the third position with about 8% at the beginning, followed by that in Germany and the United Kingdom at 5% and 2%, respectively. While renewable energy use in the United Kingdom constantly went up and reached 6% in the end, that in France and Germany saw a slight decrease in 1996 and rose to around 15%, each.