Impact-RRF-clean-power

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is delivering concrete results across the EU, supporting large-scale reforms and investments, contributing substantially to Europe’s green transition. It is at the forefront of transforming electricity systems across Member States with a dual approach of investments and reforms. 

By channelling funds into expanding renewable energy capacity and at the same time into modernizing transmission and distribution grids across the Member States and supporting electricity storage solutions to maintain grid stability, the RRF contributes to the EU’s objective of increasing the share of renewable energy to at least 42.5% by 2030. It fosters modern and decarbonised electricity systems in Europe. 

The equivalent of one third of all new renewable capacity deployed in the EU between 2021 and 2024 is supported by the RRF which is expected to deliver 61 GW of new renewable installed capacity. This will also allow to save 15.8 bcm of natural gas – or a reduction of 16% of Russian gas imports since 2021. Around 40 million households will be covered with renewable electricity and the RRF will modernise and construct at least 10 000 km of electricity grids. 

Several Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs) also include green financial instruments, that are designed to attract additional private investment and shift market behaviour. This may take the form of guarantees, loans, subsidies, grants, equity or quasi-equity schemes. Thanks to the scale of the resources, these instruments have the potential to multiply the impact of the RRPs, steering even more investment towards the green transition and amplifying change across the economy.

Alongside these investments, the RRF supports Member States in adopting investment-enabling reforms that expedite renewable energy permitting, provide faster access to the grids and contribute to a  more flexible electricity system. 

Investments in Clean Power

Powering Europe’s Future: Clean Energy and Infrastructure through the RRF

A significant share of the Recovery and Resilience Facility is dedicated to renewable energy and energy infrastructure.  

EUR 67.6 billion are allocated to these measures under the RRF. This represents 20% of the total estimated cost of the measures in the RRPs.  

The RRF is projected to increase the capacity of renewable energy sources by more than 61 GW  by 2026 – this corresponds to almost 32% of all additional renewable energy capacity deployed in Europe between 2021 and 2024 ^[1].

Importantly, this only includes explicit investments into renewable capacity in the plans. The resulting increase in renewable capacity is likely to be significantly larger if taken together with the results of other enabling measures, comprehensive permitting and market reforms, essential for accelerating the expansion of renewables, as well as the build-up of the infrastructure (grid, storage), allowing for vastly more connection of renewable capacity to the grid.

These projects go far beyond numbers on paper: they translate into clean, domestic electricity that powers homes, replaces fossil fuels (for instance in industry), and delivers lasting change for people and the planet.

Figure 3:  Projected Annual Renewable Electricity Generation from RRP Investments [GWh/year][2]

Powering millions of households: Considering the average electricity consumption of households, the renewable capacity supported by the RRF is expected to generate enough electricity each year to cover the needs of around 40 million households across the EU, equivalent to the entire number of households in Germany ^[3]. This means more European households powered by wind, solar and hydropower, and fewer exposed to volatile prices of imported fossil fuels.

The commitments for deployment of additional renewable capacity are complemented by energy saving interventions, with significant support to energy efficiency renovations for private dwellings and residential buildings.

Enabling the Energy Transition: Grid and Storage Investments

Delivering clean energy to European households and businesses requires the availability of infrastructure to carry and manage that electricity - efficiently, reliably, and across borders.

The RRF is also investing in the systems that make it work: modern transmission and distribution grids ^[8], cross-border interconnectors, and electricity storage. 

In key regions, new interconnectors are strengthening EU energy security by allowing electricity to flow more freely between Member States - reducing bottlenecks and reinforcing capacity. At the same time, storage investments improve the grid’s ability to absorb and balance variable renewable generation, ensuring that clean power is available when and where it is needed.

RRF investments are furthermore expanding the capacity of Europe’s electricity grid; The RRPs include investments in over 21 000 MW of additional transmission and distribution capacity - enough to carry the full output of around 5 125 new onshore wind turbines [9].

New and modernised electricity lines are being laid across Europe to improve grid coverage and upgrade ageing infrastructure. These investments are critical to connect remote wind and solar sites to the place of consumption, reduce curtailment, and build a pan-European electricity grid network.

More than 10 000 km of transmission and distribution lines are being reinforced or constructed—roughly equivalent to circling a quarter of the Earth - or stretching from Lisbon to Helsinki and back. Several Member States also support grids with financial instruments which are expected to significantly improve both the transmission and distribution lines – one such example is the Polish Energy Support Fund.

_{^*Note: Including interconnection capacity}

_{^**Note: The EUR 9.8 billion concerns refers to the estimated cost of the measures that had a quantified capacity target contributing to the overall figure of 10 000 km. Importantly, this number does not reflect the total estimated cost of measures contributing to energy infrastructure}

As Europe increases its share of variable renewable energy sources like wind and solar, flexibility becomes essential. That’s why the RRF supports also new energy storage projects - ranging from large-scale batteries to other grid-balancing solutions, such as standalone batteries or behind-the-meter storage.  

Storage investments are distributed across the EU, with key contributions in Bulgaria, Greece, Spain and Portugal - enhancing grid flexibility at scale.

With over 7 GW of energy storage capacity across RRPs, these systems help store energy during periods of high renewable output and release it when demand peaks - ensuring reliability, reducing curtailment, and lowering reliance on fossil-based backup generation. 

This corresponds to the ability to provide more than 27 GWh of stored energy. The estimated 7 GW of energy storage capacity is enough to power 2.5 million households for a day ^[10] — contributing significantly to grid flexibility and renewable energy integration.

Figure 8: Projected storage capacity under the RRF [MW]

The investments in grid flexibility are further complemented by energy efficiency interventions, with significant support to retrofitting of private dwellings and residential buildings. Additionally, the RRF will enable the installation of more than 14 million smart meters. This will allow consumers to adjust their consumption in relation to lower electricity prices and will significantly contribute to enhancing the security of the electricity system as well as make the energy transition more cost-efficient. This also enables more grid flexibility, allowing for the integration of additional variable generation from renewables.

Green financial instruments: impact that goes further

Several RRPs include green financial instruments, that are designed to attract additional private investment and shift market behaviour. This may take the form of guarantees, loans, subsidies, grants, equity or quasi-equity schemes. Thanks to the scale of the resources dedicated, these instruments have the potential to multiply the impact of the RRPs, steering even more investment towards the green transition and amplifying change across the economy.

Reforms and Long-Term Impact: Laying the Foundation for Lasting Change

The full power of the Recovery and Resilience Facility lies not only in the investments it funds, but also in the reforms it enables. Investments under the RRF go hand-in-hand with reforms. Across Member States, the RRF has accelerated changes to streamline permitting, improve electricity market design, and speed up the integration of renewables in the electricity grids.

More than 125 energy-related reforms, corresponding to 37% of the green reforms, across most of Member States are unlocking private investment, reducing barriers to the deployment of renewable energy sources, and ensuring the benefits of the RRF extend well beyond 2026, in addition to the direct effects of the RRF investments. Together, the reforms form a lasting foundation for a clean, secure, and competitive European energy system. 

The examples below aim to illustrate how structural reforms in the RRPs contribute to creating impacts beyond 2026 and to show the commitments outlined in the RRPs. While reforms have common features, they have to be tailor made for the situation of the Member State in question and positively contribute to the investments that the Member State pursues.

In a snapshot

The Recovery and Resilience Facility is playing a key role in modernising and decarbonsing the electricity systems in the EU. Even if only looking at the actually committed investments and not considering the very significant additional impact of reforms e.g., the permitting and market reforms ^[11] – the investments will lead to far-reaching results: 

Useful links

Impact-RRF-energy-efficiency

Impact-RRF-sustainable-mobility

Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard

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