Building up Europe's capacity to produce and use clean energy technologies is essential to ensuring that the EU remains competitive on the global clean energy technology market, bringing benefits to the European economy and citizens.
The EU is currently facing technological and non-technological challenges, such as high energy prices, critical raw materials supply chain disruptions and skills shortages. Strengthening the competitiveness of the EU clean energy sector will help shape a more resilient, independent, secure and affordable energy system in Europe.
Considering that 35% of the greenhouse gas emission reductions expected by 2050 require technologies that are not yet ready for the market, research and innovation activities are crucial to supply the technologies needed for the green and digital energy transition and to deliver on the European Green Deal and REPowerEU objectives.
Competitiveness progress reports
Since 2020, the Commission has published yearly progress reports on the competitiveness of clean energy technologies and their manufacturers, presenting the current and projected state of play, in accordance with Article 35 of the Energy Union Governance Regulation (EU/2018/1999). They also map the research, innovation and competitiveness aspects of the EU’s clean energy system as a whole, with the aim of informing policy decisions and helping to make the EU competitive, resilient and climate-neutral by 2050.
In 2024, reporting on competitiveness was done through the ninth State of the Energy Union Report and the Clean Energy Technology Observatory reports. In addition, the topic was at the core of the report by Mario Draghi on the future of European competitiveness.
Previously, the 2023 Competitiveness Progress Report monitored the competitiveness of the EU’s clean energy and net-zero technology sectors, building on available data to provide insights into ways of reinforcing the EU’s competitiveness in clean energy technology.
The report also highlighted the main drivers, opportunities and barriers, including challenges such as energy and material costs, value chain resilience, labour shortages and innovation.
It showed how the cost of clean energy technologies remained highly competitive in 2022, despite rising energy and materials costs, leading to an increase of around 50% in the rate of wind and solar roll-out across the EU, compared to the previous year.
It includes dedicated sections assessing the competitiveness of strategic energy technologies outlined in the Net-Zero Industry Act proposal, namely solar PV, solar thermal, onshore and offshore wind, ocean energy, batteries, heat pumps, geothermal energy, water electrolysis to produce renewable hydrogen, sustainable biogas and biomethane, carbon capture and storage and grid technologies.
Policy factsheets are available covering the main recommendations for the technologies covered in the 2023 Competitiveness Progress Report, as well as technology factsheets which cover both Competitive Progress Report and Clean Energy Technology Observatory technologies.
Clean Transition Dialogues
Commission President von der Leyen announced the launch of the Clean Transition Dialogues in her 2023 State of the Union speech, to discuss with European industry and social partners how to strengthen and support the implementation of the European Green Deal, contributing to a reinforced industrial approach.
Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič chaired 9 dialogues between October 2023 and March 2024 covering hydrogen, energy-intensive industries, clean tech, energy infrastructure, critical raw materials, forest-based bioeconomy, cities, clean mobility, and steel. The Commission presented a Communication taking stock of the dialogues in April 2024, confirming that industry and social partners are committed to shaping and implementing the Green Deal. Furthermore, in 2024 the new Commission announced a Clean Industrial Deal for competitive industries and quality jobs in the first 100 days of its mandate, as outlined in President on der Leyen's Political Guidelines 2024-2029.
The Net-Zero Industry Act
The Net-Zero Industry Act (Regulation 2024/1735) was published and entered into force in June 2024 and is part of Europe’s Green Deal Industrial Plan.
The act aims to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of net-zero technologies in the EU, by making our energy system more secure, sustainable and affordable. It will create the right conditions to attract investments, support innovation (including through regulatory sandboxes) and ensure that at least 40% of the EU’s annual deployment needs for net-zero technologies are manufactured in the EU. It provides an EU roadmap to reduce Europe’s high dependency on imports from single suppliers of net-zero technologies. It will also help increase resilience in Europe’s clean energy supply chains.
The Clean Energy Technology Observatory
The Clean Energy Technology Observatory (CETO) monitors EU research, innovation and competitiveness in clean energy technologies. The 2024 CETO reports were released in November 2024.
One of the main goals of CETO to provide a repository of technological and socio-economic data on the most relevant technologies and their integration in the energy system. It targets in particular the status and outlook for innovative solutions and the sustainable market uptake of both mature and inventive technologies. The observatory builds on the previous work of the Low Carbon Energy Observatory.
CETO produces a series of annual reports addressing technology maturity status, development and trends (2030-2050 and beyond), value chain analysis, global market and EU positioning, along with clean technology system integration. These reports provide the evidence-based analysis underpinning the Progress Report on Competitiveness of Clean Energy Technologies and support the implementation of the SET Plan and research policy development.
CETO was set up in January 2022, as a shared initiative between the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and the Directorate-General for Energy.
- Net-Zero Industry Act (EU/2024/1735)
- Press release: Commission welcomes political agreement to make clean technology manufacturing in the EU resilient and competitive (06/02/2024)
- Press release: Net-Zero Industry Act: Making the EU the home of clean technologies manufacturing and green jobs, Factsheet (16/03/2023)
- 2023 Progress report on competitiveness of clean energy technologies (COM/2023/652)
- News: Competitiveness report highlights EU potential in clean energy transition (25/10/2023)
- 2022 Progress Report on competitiveness of clean energy technologies (COM/2022/643)
- 2021 Progress Report on competitiveness of clean energy technologies (COM/2021/952) and its 5 staff working documents (SWD/2021/307)
- 2020 Progress report on competitiveness of clean energy technologies (COM/2020/953) and staff working document (SWD/2020/953)