Wind energy

About

The European Union has established a comprehensive policy framework in which wind energy plays a central role in delivering industrial competitiveness, energy security and climate neutrality. Key legislative and strategic initiatives supporting wind energy include: 

• the European Green Deal and the Fit-for-55 package, accelerating the deployment of renewable energy and electrification  
• the EU Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy, focusing on expanding offshore wind capacity, grid infrastructure, and environmental protection across EU sea basins
• the European Wind Power Action Plan, addressing barriers to deployment, strengthening Europe's industrial base and supply chains  
• the Net-Zero Industry Act, supporting the scale-up of European manufacturing capacity for strategic net-zero technologies, including wind energy.  

Wind energy is a cornerstone of Europe's energy transition. It already provides around one fifth of the EU's electricity while contributing to industrial competitiveness, energy security and climate objectives. Achieving the EU's ambitions for 2030 and 2050 will require a significant acceleration of wind deployment together with sustained investment in research and innovation, manufacturing capacity, electricity grids and system integration.  

Established in 2016, the Implementation Working Group (IWG) on Wind coordinates SET Plan countries’ research and innovation (R&I) priorities for wind energy under the SET Plan. It promotes increased collaboration between national programmes and contributes to the development of common European priorities. The first Implementation Plan for offshore wind was published in 2018, followed by a revised Implementation Plan in 2022. The IWG expanded its scope to cover both onshore and offshore wind energy, and under the revised SET Plan governance is now mandated to develop Common Implementation and Investment Plans (CIIPs) for wind energy and monitor their implementation.    

The IWG Wind works closely with the European Technology Innovation Platform (ETIP) Wind, European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) JP Wind, and is supported by the SETIPWind 2 project. 

Targets and objectives

In June 2023, as part of the SET Plan’s revision, the Member States involved in the IWG on wind defined six new targets for wind energy. These new targets must guide R&I efforts from the Member States to accelerate the development and the deployment of wind energy in Europe. The targets include: 

• at least 3% increase of national R&I funding dedicated to wind energy 
• at least 0.5 percentage points increase per year in wind energy penetration in electricity needs at European level 
• at least 2 GW of wind manufacturing capacity added per year at the European level 
• research and development budget for to materials recovery technologies, including recycling and critical raw materials 
• at least 100,000 workers trained by 2025 at the EU level 
• one research project on average per year to enable faster permitting for wind energy projects. 

Under the revised SET Plan governance, the IWG Wind members have defined five strategic R&I priority areas for wind energy in their Thematic Vision for wind energy: 

• industrialisation and competitiveness  
• operations, digitalisation and cybersecurity  
• wind energy system integration  
• sustainability and circularity  
• skills, societal engagement and coexistence.  

These priorities support a long-term vision in which Europe will: 

• maintain a globally competitive and resilient wind industry  
• deploy highly digitalised and cybersecure wind energy systems  
• position wind energy as the backbone of a climate-neutral and electrified European energy system  
• achieve fully circular wind farms with reduced dependence on critical raw materials  
• strengthen public support while developing the skilled workforce needed to sustain Europe's wind energy ambitions.  

The Thematic Vision also establishes milestones for 2030, 2040 and 2050, providing a common framework for aligning national R&I programmes and accelerating innovation across the European wind energy sector.  

IWG members

Participating countries (alphabetical order and status): 

Relevant links

• SETIPWind 
• ETIPWIND  
• EERA JP WIND 
• IWG WIND