Ready, Set, Go: Europe’s Race for Wind and Solar

The report 'Ready, Set, Go: Europe’s Race for Wind and Solar' by Ember analyses the gap between current wind and solar deployment rates in the European Union and the capacities required to align with a 1.5C climate pathway by 2030. It finds that the EU is not on track, with annual additions forecast to reach only half of the required levels by 2026. The report identifies administrative permitting barriers as a primary cause of underperformance, noting that permitting times frequently exceed EU legislative limits.

• To align with a 1.5C pathway, the European Union must significantly increase its annual wind and solar capacity additions, reaching 76 GW by 2026. However, forecasts indicate the EU will only add 38 GW by that date, which is half of the required annual increase.
• Most EU member states are failing to meet the wind installation rates necessary for 1.5C alignment. Only four out of 27 countries—Finland, Croatia, Lithuania, and Sweden—are projected to achieve the required annual wind capacity increases.
• Permitting processes for renewable energy projects frequently exceed the two-year limit established by the 2018 Renewable Energy Directive (RED). For onshore wind, none of the 18 analysed countries stayed below this limit, with permitting times ranging from 30 months in Romania to 120 months in Croatia.
• Solar permitting times also frequently exceed EU limits. Out of 12 analysed countries, only Belgium, Lithuania, and Romania had permitting times under 24 months, with delays in other countries reaching up to four years.
• The EU's REPowerEU proposal has increased the 2030 renewable capacity target to 1236 GW, up from 1067 GW in previous plans and 513 GW of installed capacity in 2021.
• Specific national efforts are noted, such as Germany's 'Easter Package', which aims for 10 GW/year of onshore wind from 2025 and 19 GW of offshore wind between 2026 and 2030 to reach 145 GW total wind capacity by 2030.
• Administrative barriers are causing significant delays in capacity deployment; for example, Poland has up to 20 GW of solar capacity awaiting grid connection permits.

APA

Fox, H., Czyżak, P., & Brown, S. (2022). Ready, Set, Go: Europe’s Race for Wind and Solar. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report_-Ready-Set-Go_-Europes-Race-for-Wind-and-Solar-2.pdf

Chicago

Fox, Harriet, Pał Czyżak, and Sarah Brown. Ready, Set, Go: Europe’s Race for Wind and Solar. Ember, 2022. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report_-Ready-Set-Go_-Europes-Race-for-Wind-and-Solar-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Fox |first1=Harriet |last2=Czyżak |first2=Pał |last3=Brown |first3=Sarah |title=Ready, Set, Go: Europe’s Race for Wind and Solar |publisher=Ember |date=27 July 2022 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report_-Ready-Set-Go_-Europes-Race-for-Wind-and-Solar-2.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{fox2022ready, author = {Fox, Harriet and Czyżak, Pał and Brown, Sarah}, title = {{Ready, Set, Go: Europe’s Race for Wind and Solar}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2022}, month = jul, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report_-Ready-Set-Go_-Europes-Race-for-Wind-and-Solar-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }