The EU installed 80 GW of renewable capacity last year, while capacity six times larger was still awaiting grid connection.
EnvironmentEuropean Union
- Omissions
- No official Eurostat/European Commission statistic for total EU renewable capacity installed in 2025 is available in the sources found; the ~80 GW figure is the sum of industry-association data (solar ~64.2 GW plus wind ~15-19 GW), which the speaker did not cite.
- The 64.2 GW EU solar figure is a SolarPower Europe market forecast for 2025, not a final confirmed installation statistic.
- WindEurope's 19 GW of new wind capacity in 2025 covers 'Europe' (including non-EU markets such as the UK, Türkiye, Norway), so the EU-27 wind contribution is somewhat lower.
- Estimates of capacity awaiting grid connection vary enormously in scope and quality: Ember cites at least 120 GW of planned projects 'at risk' from grid constraints, a report by Beyond Fossil Fuels cites about 1,700 GW across 16 European countries (including speculative/hybrid projects), and one aggregator cites 700 GW of connection queues across only eight reporting EU member states. The exact 'six times larger' (~480 GW) multiple is therefore not directly documented by any official source.
- Sources describing 2025 installations (WindEurope annual statistics, review-energy summary) were published in early 2026, i.e. after the 21 October 2026 session date the claim refers to is fine — but the MEP could not have cited final 2025 annual data before it was published; only partial/forecast 2025 data existed earlier.