NEWS & INSIGHTS | Opinion
Europe’s wind energy growth faces challenges despite strong investment
Luca Corradi
Luca works to bring “the outside in”, connecting innovators and academics across sectors and disciplines, to explore the latest technologies that could be adopted to address oil and gas industry challenges. Leading The Net Zero Technology Centre’s horizon scanning activity, he identifies emerging technology trends, cutting through the hype to identify potential areas of impact and application. With a background in business and organisational change leadership, Luca has developed a strong network and is passionate about harnessing this to deliver the next generation of the net zero energy industry.
Outside work Luca loves reading, music and travel. He is married with two young daughters and a dog. He enjoys the rare motorbike ride in Scotland and even rarer ski trip on the Alps.
This week in net zero: OEUK Economic Report, European Wind, DAC carbon sequestration
Chief Technology Officer at NZTC, Luca Corradi, and his team closely monitor the global net zero landscape. They follow the trends, policies, investments and technological innovations that, together, bring the world closer to its shared climate goals. Learn more about our horizon scanning service. This week, Luca and his team look at OEUK’s 2025 Economic report, wind expectations for the decade, and explore the first DAC carbon sequestration project in North America.
OEUK economic report highlights urgent need to strengthen UK energy supply and protect offshore jobs
The UK now relies on imports for 43.8% of its energy consumption. Despite having the potential to meet half of domestic oil and gas demand, current projections show the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) is only on track to supply a quarter of that demand by 2050.
Offshore investment at risk
Fiscal instability and regulatory hurdles are slowing progress in offshore energy advancement. According to OEUK’s report on fiscal policy impacts on the UKCS, replacing the Energy Profits Levy (EPL) with a more appropriate price mechanism could:
- unlock 2.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent
- inject £137 billion into the economy
- support 23,000 additional jobs by 2030
The EPL is already having a severe impact: nine out of ten supply chain companies are looking overseas, and around 1,000 jobs are being lost every month.
Why supply chain matters
Maintaining UK supply chains will be critical to delivering a successful energy transition. Mismanagement of the oil and gas sector risks an early exit of supply chain companies from the UK. Many of the companies that will be needed to scale up offshore low-carbon and renewable energy projects currently rely on the oil and gas sector for work.
Clean Power 2030 under pressure
The UK has made significant progress over the past decade in expanding low-carbon and renewable power capacity. However, missed Contract for Difference (CfD) awards in recent allocation rounds, combined with grid constraints, are putting pressure on the UK’s ability to meet its Clean Power 2030 (CP30) targets. The carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) sector is poised for rapid growth, with Track 1 clusters reaching final investment decision (FID) and Track 2 clusters expected to follow by the end of this parliament.
The UK is now reliant on imports for 43.8% of its energy consumption. Without sustained investment in domestic oil, gas and renewables, this gap will continue to grow.
The OEUK Economic Report 2025 underscores the UK offshore energy sector’s critical role, supporting more than 200,000 jobs and enabling up to £200 billion in investment across this decade.
Europe wind energy outlook shows investment momentum but risks missing 2030 targets
Europe currently has 291GW of wind power capacity: 254GW onshore and 37GW offshore. Wind Europe expects this to grow to 441GW by 2030. In the first half of 2025, Germany led new installations with 2.2GW, followed by Spain with 889MW and the UK with 760MW.
The EU is projected to reach 344GW of installed wind capacity by 2030, falling short of its 425GW target. There is slowe than expected growth due to:
- slower electrification,
- grid bottlenecks,
- limited port and vessel capacity,
- ongoing permitting delays,
- and poorly designed auctions in several countries
Europe connected 741MW of new offshore wind capacity in the first half of 2025, 30% less than the same period in 2024. All of this came from just three projects in the UK and France.
Despite these challenges, investment momentum is strong. Europe made €34 billion in Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) for new wind farms in H1 2025, already surpassing total investment in 2024. Six of these FIDs were for offshore projects.
Upcoming auctions
Governments across Europe awarded 11.7GW of new wind capacity in auctions during H1 2025:
- 10.7GW onshore
- 1GW offshore
A further 26.2GW is expected to be auctioned in H2 2025, excluding the UK’s Allocation Round 7 and Ireland’s fifth round of the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS).
New onshore and offshore wind energy installations in Europe in H1 2025
This autumn update outlines the latest data for wind energy in Europe, and Wind Europe’s expectations for the rest of the decade.
Deep Sky Alpha launches solar powered direct air capture facility with underground CO₂ storage
Deep Sky Alpha is the first direct air capture (DAC) facility in North America to sequester CO₂ underground. Fully powered by solar energy, the facility will capture 3,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. Its performance will be continuously monitored using proprietary software, with progress updates available on Deep Sky’s website.
Alpha enables real-world testing and optimisation of multiple DAC technologies under identical conditions, helping accelerate the industry’s path to scalable, cost-effective carbon removal. While capturing CO₂ from point sources remains more affordable, DAC plays a vital role in offsetting residual emissions from hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation.
The site has capacity for up to 10 DAC units in total. Featured technologies include UK based Airhive and Mission Zero Technologies, and Quebec based Skyrenu. Additional units are scheduled for installation later this year.
Deep Sky recently secured a $40 million grant from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, along with carbon removal credit purchase agreements from buyers including Microsoft and the Royal Bank of Canada.
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