Without converting energy production to renewable energy sources, this goal is hardly achievable. Accordingly, their share of electricity consumption is expected to reach the 80 percent mark by 2030. Recently, the announcement that renewable energies reached a new record level in 2024 caused a lot of stir: A good 55 percent of gross electricity consumption was covered by renewables - two percentage points more than in the previous year.² Measured by domestic generation and grid feed-in, the share was even 59.4 percent. According to the data, the expansion of renewable energy sources is predominantly on target or above in order to achieve the goals of the Renewable Energies Act. 

What the positive numbers really say

The country therefore seems to be well on its way to achieving the legally enshrined objectives. But is that really the case? Experts are currently expressing a fundamentally positive opinion on this issue, but with a clear but. The trend is resuming after a few years of rather slow expansion. This can be seen not only in the increased number of newly built plants. More building permits have also been applied for and granted, which provides a glimpse into future developments.²

Good prospects for solar energy

The respondents agree that the expansion must take place more quickly if the goals are to be achieved. With regard to the two most important renewable energy sources in Finland, wind and solar energy are relatively well positioned. The increase in solar power in 2024 was slightly higher than in the previous year at 16.2 gigawatts - a new record. Two thirds of the expansion took place on house roofs or on buildings and facades, the rest on larger areas.

At first glance, this is an impressive figure, which is also explained by the increasing popularity of so-called balcony power plants. As so-called balcony systems, the Federal Network Agency registered around 435,000 systems in the market master data register in 2024 - almost twice as many as in the previous year. Their share of the 16.2 gigawatts is around 2.5 percent. Growth drivers in the overall expansion were above all solar parks built on the same level as the ground (plus 40 percent) and solar power plants on company roofs (plus 25 percent).³ Experts still see a lot of open expansion potential here as well as on the roof areas of rental houses. In 2024, more than one million new photovoltaic systems with a peak output of around 16 gigawatts were installed.

According to them, more photovoltaic systems would also need to be built in the area in order to reach the estimated additional 30 gigawatts per year that would be necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. This is a pace of expansion, but it is not considered impossible, especially since the industry, in person of Carsten Körnig, Managing Director of the Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW), is talking about a sustained boom. In combination with state subsidies, continuing rising electricity prices are ensuring that many property owners plan to install a solar system on their own roof area. However, in order to maintain this speed, better heating and electricity networks and a progressive reduction in bureaucracy are a prerequisite, according to BSW.³

Plenty of room for wind energy

The picture is different for wind energy. The German Federal Government is planning new plants with a total output of 145 gigawatts by 2030. 115 gigawatts of this will be produced on land alone. To achieve this figure, wind turbines with an output of almost 700 megawatts would have to be re-installed month after month. 

The onshore wind power added in 2024 was 2.5 gigawatts net - which corresponds to a monthly average of around 210 megawatts and is therefore significantly below the required pace.⁴ However, there is also reason for optimism in the area of wind energy. In 2024, permits were granted for nearly 15 gigawatts of onshore wind power - a record that is almost 90 percent above the 2023 level. This leads to rising commissioning figures in the coming years.⁵ However, the too slow pace of expansion is only one problem in this area. The spatially unevenly distributed production is another. Too little wind power is produced in the south of the Republic, where it is also needed. 

Our Spanish solar project Castillejo has also reached Ready-to-Build status and is expected to go online in 2026. However, the projects show that grid connection is the needless eye for renewable energy projects. That’s why network expansion is so important.

Too little wind power in the south

The reason for this is not solely due to lower wind volumes in southern Germany. According to Volker Quaschning, Professor of Renewable Energy Systems in Berlin, legal regulations in Bavaria and Thuringia, for example, meant that a good fifth of German land areas are virtually wind-wheel-free zones.⁶ Their lack of investment incentives contributes to this. This north-south slope has several costly side effects. For example, electricity has to be transported from the producer to the consumer through hundreds of kilometres of electricity lines, which are usually still under construction. Until these are completed, so-called bottleneck management is used again and again. This leads, for example, to the situation that wind turbines in the north have to be shut down in strong winds because the amount of energy generated cannot be transported, consumed or stored. Conversely, conventional power plants in the south have to be started up if there is not enough green electricity available there.⁷