Competitiveness of European clean energy technologies

Client

European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA)

Year

2025

Partner

Viegand & Maagoe


In recent years, Europe has maintained its strong position in the global market for clean energy technologies, but is facing increasing competition from other regions, particularly China. The need to ensure the competitiveness of European industries in line with the goals of climate neutrality by 2050 is clearly evident, for example, in the Clean Industrial Deal.

The European Commission therefore publishes an annual progress report on competitiveness, which assesses the state of development of clean energy technologies and the position of European industry. This is based on continuously updated, internationally comparable indicators — an essential basis for evidence-based policy-making. The data allows for both aggregated and detailed analyses by country, technology, and value chain.

For the current edition, Prognos collected key economic indicators on behalf of the European Commission, based on comprehensive data modeling. The indicators enable a consistent assessment of the competitiveness of European clean energy technologies and thus support the work of the European Commission and the Clean Technology Observatory in strengthening domestic value creation.

Economic momentum and competitiveness in the European market for clean energy technologies

The analysis shows significant economic momentum across various segments of the sustainable technology value chain, such as energy generation, green electricity, wind power, solar power, and more.

The following key findings were identified:

  • Value creation and competitiveness: Over 950,000 people are employed in the clean energy sector in the EU. Germany leads the European market for clean energy technologies and accounts for 36 per cent of the EU's gross value added.
  • Sector specialisation: Germany has established strong manufacturing capacities in the areas of wind energy, heat pumps and batteries. However, other EU countries are also expanding their capacities: Denmark and Sweden have high value added in wind energy and heat pump production. Hungary has the highest gross value added in battery manufacturing.
  • Dynamic growth: EU countries are experiencing very dynamic growth, with the number of people in employment rising by over 5 per cent per year since 2010 and gross value added growing by 8 per cent per year. The analysis shows double-digit growth rates for wind energy, photovoltaics and batteries, while the markets for solar thermal and geothermal energy are growing more slowly.
  • Economic significance: In addition to production, a large part of the economic effects arise in the upstream and downstream value chains: in particular, the installation and operation of renewable energy plants are a significant factor in terms of employment and value creation.

Our approach

We developed an evidence-based method for value chain analysis based on the latest and most comprehensive data sources from Eurostat. Based on Structural Business Statistics, data on gross value added, the number of people employed, and the number of companies were evaluated. The model-based approach enabled a country- and year-specific analysis of economic activities along various stages of the value chain, from research and development to manufacturing, construction, and installation activities, to plant operation.

Links and downloads

To the study

Project team: Jannis Lambert, Richard Simpson, Tim Bichlmeier, Robert Norpoth

Latest update: 03.12.2025

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Jannis Lambert

Principal

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Richard Simpson

Project Manager

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