The EU should establish a European Fund for Wind Research & Competitiveness under its new budget, according to a new report from the European Technology & Innovation Platform on Wind energy (ETIPWind).
In From Innovation to Industrial Competitiveness, the report argues that establishing the fund would safeguard the competitiveness of the European wind industry and to secure Europe’s technology sovereignty in clean tech.
The wind industry remains Europe’s flagship clean tech industry.
Wind energy companies and research institutes employ over 370,000 people and contribute more than €52bn to EU GDP, according to the report.
Furthermore, wind energy is a home-grown energy source with 99% of the turbines installed in Europe being “made-in-Europe”.
And the industrial footprint of wind energy continues to grow, with Europe’s wind energy supply chain investing more than €11bn in new and expanded factories, it adds.
However, wind installations are falling short to meet EU long-term goals.
In 2024 only 13GW of new wind capacity was connected in the EU, far below the required 35GW of new installations per year needed to reach the EU 2030 target of 425GW.
R&I funding is a key driver to scale-up, industrialise, and accelerate wind installations, the report argues.
The EU’s public R&I funding must be directed towards automation of manufacturing processes, optimised installation methods, and new fit-for-deployment designs, alongside with investments in the supply chain and supporting infrastructure such as grids and ports.
The current EU approach to wind energy R&I funding is falling short here, the report states.
The EU lacks the right R&I policies and tools to translate its academic excellence and wind-specific innovation potential into industrial competitiveness, it argues.
ETIPWind said the EU is not spending enough on R&I for wind energy; any finance is too fragmented, lacks focus and direction and is overly bureaucratic.
In addition, the EU’s supportive financial ecosystem is underdeveloped.
In response ETIPWind calls on the EU to establish a European Fund for Wind Research & Competitiveness as part of the next EU budget (2028-2034).
The Fund must be a technology-specific one-stop-shop that centralises EU funding for wind energy R&I, from basic research to large-scale deployment, it says.
The European Fund for Wind Research & Competitiveness must come with increased EU and national wind energy R&I funding of at least €600m a year.
There must also be a strict simplification of the administrative requirements associated with public R&I funding. It must implement the common strategy for wind research and competitiveness defined in this latest report.
The ETIPWind chair, Adrian Timbus, said: “This report shows wind energy can become the pillar of Europe’s industrial competitiveness and energy security agenda.
“There is great consensus between the political will and the industry needs.
“We need to build on this momentum to ensure wind is a top priority in Europe’s industrial strategy and that we invest massively in innovation and industrialisation of wind power solutions.
“We must strengthen and formalise the collaboration between the wind sector, the European Commission, and the Member States.”