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Green Dealflow joined over 15,000 renewable energy professionals in April at WindEurope 2025 in Copenhagen, rallying around the theme ‘Scale Up, Electrify and Deliver’. Here, we’re focusing on four aspects of interest to project developers and investors: the increasing viability of battery storage systems, the opportunities in repowering ageing turbines, the regulatory landscape, and the pipeline for upcoming wind auctions.
BESS economics: The numbers now add up
Battery storage emerged as a central focus at WindEurope 2025, with industry leaders highlighting the critical role of storage systems in balancing supply and demand. “Storage systems play a crucial role in enhancing grid flexibility by balancing supply and demand, accommodating the intermittent nature of renewable sources, and ensuring a stable and reliable energy supply,” noted Aurélien Ballagny, Head of Policy at the Energy Storage Coalition.
Rystad Energy’s “Renewables and Power Outlook 2025” underscores the increasing viability of BESS projects and investment. Their research confirms that, globally, 2024 saw nearly 200GWh of new BESS capacity — an 80% year-on-year increase. Cost reductions have been dramatic, with average capital expenditure falling below £300 per kilowatt-hour alongside improved cycle life guarantees exceeding 10,000 cycles. California exemplifies the trend, with batteries now supplying about 11% of power demand during discharge periods — up from less than 1% four years ago.
In Europe, the report shows, growing price volatility is creating attractive arbitrage opportunities, with profits exceeding €77 per discharged megawatt-hour in many Western European markets. This is particularly significant given that European BESS implementation costs remain substantially higher than those in China, where vertically integrated supply chains and strong policy support have driven battery block prices down to around €65 per kWh – with Chinese manufacturers still maintaining substantial 45% profit margins. Despite European projects often facing costs exceeding €300 per kWh due to labour, energy, and manufacturing limitations, the widening arbitrage potential is increasingly offsetting these higher capital costs, making the business case for storage deployment stronger even in high-cost regions.
Repowering could triple output from Europe’s prime wind sites
As Europe’s wind fleet ages, the question of what to do with thousands of first-generation turbines has become a pressing issue for the industry. There is significant potential in replacing older, less efficient turbines with modern models.
The case for modernisation
The oldest wind farms in Europe occupy the continent’s best wind locations, but many run on outdated technology that delivers far less electricity than today’s turbines can achieve. According to WindEurope, repowering can more than triple the output of a wind farm and reduce the number of turbines by 25%. This translates to more power and a smaller visual footprint – a compelling proposition for communities and developers. Despite these benefits, the session titled Repowering: why ain’t it happening? revealed significant barriers to progress:
- Many European countries lack clear national strategies for repowering
- Cumbersome permitting procedures are the main obstacle
- Updated grid connections are needed to accommodate repowered turbines The EU has taken steps to address these issues with new permitting rules that mandate six-month decisions for repowering projects.
The scale of opportunity is substantial, with permitting rates for new and repowered wind farms rising sharply across the EU in 2024. Germany has led the way, with approvals reaching 12 GW – up 60% from the previous year and exceeding the rest of the EU combined.
Ambitious auction pipeline to secure Europe’s wind future
WindEurope has proposed a New Offshore Wind Deal for Europe, calling for governments to auction at least 100 GW of offshore wind capacity between 2031 and 2040. This proposal, if adopted, would create a predictable schedule of approximately 10 GW annually, providing the steady flow of projects needed for factories and developers to scale operations efficiently. Unlike the current approach with its changing targets and compressed timeframes, WindEurope’s method would give investors and supply chain companies greater certainty for long-term planning.
Meanwhile, actual projections show Europe is on track to install 187 GW of new wind power capacity from 2025 to 2030, with the 27 EU member states accounting for 140 GW of this total. This represents an average annual addition of 23 GW across both onshore and offshore projects. While financing is materialising, with €33 billion secured in 2024 alone for nearly 20 GW of upcoming projects, the industry requires more consistent auction schedules to sustainably scale manufacturing capacity and development resources.
Currently, Germany, the UK, and France are leading the way in auction implementation and capacity installations. Other markets, including Poland, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, have confirmed they are preparing concrete tender announcements for 2025. Speakers advocated for two-sided Contracts for Difference (CfDs) as the preferred auction mechanism, citing their effectiveness in reducing risk and improving project bankability. (CfDs guarantee a fixed price for electricity, with the developer receiving top-up payments when market prices fall below this level but returning money when prices exceed it).
The Copenhagen call to action on regulations
At the opening session, the wind industry launched the Copenhagen Call to Action, urging European governments to:
- Apply new EU permitting rules to speed up project approvals and filter out stalled (“zombie”) projects from grid queues.
- Remove barriers to electrification – including reforming taxes and enabling state aid for renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs).
- De-risk wind investments by ensuring a stable pipeline of CfD auctions, which provide cost visibility and investment certainty.
The message from Copenhagen is clear: Europe’s wind industry is at a moment where technological innovation, strategic investment, and regulatory courage must converge to transform the clean energy vision into reality.
