Europe has achieved an energy milestone: combined wind and solar power generation now surpasses fossil fuels in the European Union's electricity mix. But behind this historic advance lies a structural contradiction.
While the bloc accelerates auctions, new projects and electrification, more than 170 GW of wind capacity remain stuck in connection queues, revealing that the main limit of the transition is no longer in renewable development, but in the infrastructure that must integrate it.
Germany has the biggest bottleneck, with 46.5 GW of wind power projects awaiting connection. Italy has another 35.5 GW, Poland 30 GW, France 17.5 GW, and Spain 13 GW.
Congestion also extends to Sweden, with 10 GW; Greece and the United Kingdom with 6 GW each; Lithuania, with 3 GW; Ireland, with 2 GW; and Bosnia along with other Balkan markets, with 1.5 GW.
Even Hungary is beginning to show signs of pressure, with another 0.5 GW on hold.
The problem can no longer be interpreted as an isolated administrative delay: it is a structural congestion in the continent's main energy markets, precisely where the bulk of the renewable growth projected for this decade is concentrated.
The bottleneck is not due to a lack of investor appetite. In 2025 alone, Europe added 19.1 GW of new wind power capacity, bringing the total to 304 GW, while WindEurope forecasts another 151 GW between 2026 and 2030.
The industrial pulse also shows no signs of slowing down. Turbine orders reached 1.05 GW offshore and another 5 GW onshore by the fourth quarter of 2025, plus an additional 1.11 GW without public disclosure. In manufacturing, Vestas leads the European market with a 26% share, followed by Enercon (15%), Siemens Gamesa (13%), Nordex-Acciona (9%), Siemens Energy (8%), and GE (4%) , reflecting an industrial ecosystem that continues to bet on sector growth despite the infrastructure bottleneck.
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But while annual investment in networks already exceeds EUR 70 billion, the European Commission estimates that EUR 1.2 trillion will be needed by 2040 to adapt the infrastructure to electrification, renewable integration and the growth of new energy-intensive consumption.
The pressure extends far beyond the wind energy sector. In France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, more than 800 GW of renewable capacity was awaiting grid connection by the end of 2024, equivalent to 2.4 times the total installed capacity of those markets. This figure is further augmented by another 550 GW in battery storage connection requests and 321 GW from large electricity consumers, reflecting increasing competition for infrastructure access among generators, storage providers, and electrified industries.
Offshore development accelerates as pressure on infrastructure grows
Far from slowing down, the renewable energy pipeline continues to gain momentum, especially in offshore wind. At the beginning of the year, the UK awarded 8.4 GW in its AR7 auction—8.2 GW of fixed offshore wind and nearly 200 MW of floating offshore wind— making it the largest offshore auction in European history. The competition also sent a clear market signal: 19 projects with a total capacity of 24 GW qualified to participate, confirming that investor interest remains strong even in a context of increased financial demands and pressure on supply chains.
For its part, Poland awarded another 3,435 MW in three offshore rounds between December 2025 , while Germany allocated 3,445 MW of onshore wind in January 2026 and Austria another 81 MW in March .
The scale of the offshore business is also reflected in the infrastructure already in operation. The United Kingdom has the largest offshore wind farms on the continent, with Hornsea Two (1,386 MW), Hornsea 1 (1,218 MW), Seagreen (1,075 MW), Moray East (950 MW) and Moray West (882 MW), consolidating the North Sea as the main European hub for offshore power generation.
Meanwhile, Spain formally began its move into offshore wind with a public consultation to design its first offshore wind auction scheme using contracts for difference, while the local pipeline continues to grow. Between December and April, a survey by Energía Estratégica identified progress or entries in the environmental permitting process for 2,695 MW of onshore wind distributed across 51 projects, in addition to 12.8 MW of offshore wind corresponding to two initiatives.
It is worth noting that approximately 40% of the current infrastructure is over 40 years old and was designed for an energy model based on centralized generation, relatively stable demand, and predictable electricity flows. Today, the scenario is radically different: electrification of transportation, AI-intensive data centers, energy storage, green hydrogen, and a growing share of variable renewables are completely altering the system's operational logic.
This new energy landscape also incorporates unprecedented operational challenges. One of the most critical is the so-called Dunkelflaute , those periods that can last for days or even weeks when low wind and solar power generation coincide simultaneously. Managing this scenario requires combining energy storage, more robust interconnections, flexible backup, and new technologies capable of stabilizing systems with high power electronics penetration, very different from traditional schemes based on thermal generation.
The economic impact of this tension is already visible. In 2024, the costs associated with managing electricity congestion in Europe reached €8.9 billion, a figure equivalent to approximately 13% of all estimated annual investment in networks. Meanwhile, even cross-border electricity trading continues to show structural limitations, despite greater interconnection being considered key to alleviating some of the pressure on the system.
Europe has largely resolved the debate on renewable energy competitiveness, consolidated wind power as a cornerstone of its energy security, and maintains a robust growth pipeline for both onshore and offshore wind. But the faster the transition progresses, the more visible the challenges become.