European countries are falling behind on wind power development, putting the EU’s 2030 climate and energy security targets at risk, industry group WindEurope said on Tuesday.
Data from the first half of 2025 shows just 6.8 gigawatts (GW) of new wind power capacity was installed across Europe, of which 5.3GW was in the EU. The group said this is significantly below expectations and attributed the shortfall to slow permitting processes and limited grid development.
“Governments must get their act together on wind energy,” said WindEurope chief executive Giles Dickson. “Wind is competitive – it brings down electricity costs for citizens and businesses. Wind is secure – home-grown wind turbines reduce costly and dangerous dependencies on fossil fuel imports.”
Germany accounted for the majority of the new capacity, with the country expected to install 5GW of onshore wind this year — nearly three times its annual average over the past five years. WindEurope attributed this surge to Germany’s early adoption of revised EU permitting rules.
In 2024, Germany permitted a record 15GW of new onshore wind, with a further 8GW permitted in the first half of 2025. Average permitting times in Germany are now around 18 months, within the timeline outlined in the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII).
However, WindEurope said that no other EU member state currently permits wind farms within the REDIII deadline of 24 months.
“Governments are still failing to get wind permitted and built fast enough,” Dickson said. “Around 400,000 people in Europe work in wind already, and each new wind turbine contributes €16 million to Europe’s GDP.”
As a result of these delays, WindEurope has revised its 2025 forecast for new installations downward. It now expects 19GW of new wind power to be built in Europe this year, compared with 22.5GW projected at the start of 2025. For the EU, the revised estimate is 14.5GW, down from 17GW.
At this pace, the EU is projected to reach 344GW of total wind capacity by 2030 — well short of its 425GW target. WindEurope expects 298GW to be onshore and 46GW offshore by the end of the decade.
Despite the slowdown in installations, indicators of future growth remain positive. Wind turbine orders reached 11.3GW in the first half of 2025, a 19% increase from the same period in 2024. Final investment decisions (FIDs) for new wind farms totalled €34 billion — more than the total FIDs in all of 2024.
WindEurope said stronger national implementation of permitting reforms, as well as faster progress on grid upgrades and electrification, are essential to meeting the EU’s renewable energy ambitions.
