Wind and solar power have crossed a line in Europe that once looked distant, supplying more electricity than fossil fuels across the European Union over the past year. The shift is not a statistical quirk but a structural change in how the bloc keeps the lights on, with renewables now shaping prices, investment and geopolitics in ways that fossil generators used to.
The latest data show that this is not just a climate milestone, it is a market one: fossil plants are being pushed to the margins of the merit order, while clean technologies move to the center of the system. The question now is how quickly policymakers and grid operators can adapt rules and infrastructure to a power mix where wind turbines and solar panels do the heavy lifting.
The tipping point: wind and solar overtake fossil fuels
The core finding is stark. In 2025, wind and solar together generated 30 per cent of the European Union’s electricity, while fossil fuels fell to 29 per cent, meaning renewables supplied more power than coal, gas and oil for the first time on record. That balance is documented in the latest European review of the bloc’s power system, which shows that the crossover is not a one-off spike but the result of years of capacity additions and policy pressure on emissions.
Researchers have described this crossover as a “major tipping point” for clean energy in a period of destabilised politics, with Wind and solar now outcompeting fossil generators on both cost and volume. Jan reports that this shift is unfolding even as energy security and the desire to reduce dependence on imported fuels loom large in European debates, underscoring how economics and geopolitics are pulling in the same direction.
Inside the numbers: how the EU power mix has changed
The headline percentages conceal a deeper restructuring of the generation fleet. According to the Highlights of the latest assessment, wind and solar generated a record 30 per cent of EU electricity, higher than fossil power for the first time, while lower fossil output helped cut costs for households and businesses. The same dataset shows that gas and coal plants are running fewer hours, increasingly acting as backup rather than baseload, which in turn affects their profitability and the investment case for new fossil capacity.
Another breakdown of the figures confirms that Wind and solar generated more EU electricity than fossil fuels for the first time in 2025, based on yearly electricity data for all 27 member states. That analysis notes that the crossover is broad based rather than driven by a single country, with multiple national markets seeing renewables displace fossil generation at scale, even as overall electricity demand fluctuated.
Solar’s surge and the role of grids
Within the clean energy camp, solar is emerging as the fastest mover. One detailed breakdown notes that Solar delivered 13 per cent of EU electricity in 2025, helping wind and solar together reach that 30 per cent share while fossil fuels slipped to 29 per cent. Rooftop systems on homes and businesses, as well as utility scale parks, are driving this expansion, supported by falling panel costs and subsidy schemes that reward self generation.
The EU is “rapidly” moving toward a system where variable renewables dominate, which raises hard questions about whether the power grid can keep up with the pace of change. One assessment of Solar and wind integration warns that transmission bottlenecks and slow permitting for new lines risk curbing further growth, even as developers continue to bring new projects online. Grid operators are already investing in digital controls, storage and cross border interconnectors to manage the more weather dependent mix.
Country leaders and laggards in the new power order
The shift away from fossil fuels is not uniform across the bloc, and some countries are pulling the averages up. A detailed breakdown of national performance shows that in 2025, for the first time, wind and solar produced more electricity (30 per cent) than fossil fuels (29 per cent) in the EU, with particularly strong contributions from markets such as Greece, Spain and the Netherlands, according to Jan. These countries have combined high quality wind or solar resources with supportive policy frameworks, from auctions to streamlined permitting, which has accelerated deployment.
The Table of Contents of the latest review highlights two key sections, “1.1. The EU gets more power from wind and solar than fossil fuels in 2025” and “1.2. Solar breaks”, which together map how this transition plays out across the 27 EU countries. The EU wide trend masks the fact that some member states still rely heavily on coal or gas, while others already generate the majority of their electricity from renewables, a divergence that will shape internal debates over future climate and energy targets.
Market, climate and geopolitical stakes
For power markets, the new hierarchy of fuels is already shifting price dynamics. As more low marginal cost renewables enter the system, wholesale prices are increasingly set by wind and solar rather than gas, which can reduce average bills but also compress revenues for conventional plants. An analysis that includes hydro notes that, including that technology, renewables provided nearly half of all EU power in 2025, reinforcing the downward pressure on fossil fuel demand and the associated emissions.
The broader review of the bloc’s electricity system, which examined generation and demand across all 27 member states for the full year, underlines how structural this change has become. According to Jan, the review analysed electricity generation and demand across all 27 EU member states, finding that while wind generation dropped by 2 per cent, solar growth and reduced fossil output still delivered the crossover. Ajit Niranjan and other Researchers argue that this rebalancing strengthens the EU’s hand in a world where energy is increasingly weaponised, since less reliance on imported fossil fuels reduces exposure to external shocks even as it cuts greenhouse gas emissions.
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