Europe wastes billions in renewable energy amid outdated grid

Europe’s ageing and under-invested electricity grid is causing massive waste of renewable energy, even as geopolitical tensions highlight the urgency of transitioning away from fossil fuels, according to an analysis by Euronews.

The ongoing war on Iran has exposed Europe’s continued reliance on fossil fuels. While Brent crude prices dipped on March 26 amid hopes of de-escalation, they have repeatedly exceeded $100 per barrel since the conflict began. Before the US-Israel war on Iran, oil prices were under €63 per barrel. Analysts attribute much of the surge to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about one-fifth of global oil supplies.

Energy prices across Europe have surged, prompting calls to open new drilling licenses in the North Sea. Yet an analysis from the University of Oxford found that maximising oil and gas extraction in the UK would save households only up to £82 per year. A UK fully powered by renewable energy, in contrast, could reduce household energy bills by up to £441 annually.

Despite these advantages, Europe continues to waste vast amounts of green energy. Last year, Britain lost £1.47 billion by curtailing wind turbines and paying gas plants to switch on. On 26 March alone, wasted wind cost the UK over £1.31 million, including £95,091 from switching off wind turbines. Germany also incurred €435 million in curtailment costs last year, down from €554 million in 2024, illustrating the scale of wasted renewable energy across the continent.

Curtailment rates reached record levels in Spain and France during the first nine months of 2025, highlighting bottlenecks in energy transport and the urgent need for grid improvements.

“This creates rush hour traffic on the grid and the energy can’t get to where it’s needed,” Octopus Energy, a UK energy firm, explained. “As a result, we pay to make it again - often with dirty fossil fuels - as well as paying to switch the wind off.”

Europe’s grid, originally designed for coal and later gas, struggles to move electricity from centrally located plants to remote or offshore wind farms. Experts warn that without rapid investment, the grid will become the main barrier to achieving Net Zero.

A 2025 study by Aurora Energy Research found that congestion management costs in Europe neared €9 billion in 2024, while 72TWh of mainly renewable energy was curtailed due to bottlenecks – roughly equivalent to Austria’s annual electricity consumption.

Investment has increased by 47% over the past five years to €70 billion annually, but experts argue this remains insufficient to meet growing renewable demand.

Amid calls for reform, the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero unveiled plans to provide discounted power to homes in windy areas.

“Sometimes there is too much wind for our outdated grid to handle, especially in Scotland and the East of England,” the department said on X (formerly Twitter). “Rather than paying wind farms to switch off we’re trialling a new system where people who live near these constrained areas get cheaper - or even free - electricity.”

Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy, welcomed the trial but warned that permanent solutions are needed.

“Permanent changes would mean you could buy an electric car, or a heat pump, or batteries to use power when it’s cheap – or build a data center. These would all shift demand far more effectively than we will see in any trial. Indeed, trials could be pretty ineffective without this.”

The analysis by Euronews highlights a critical paradox: even as Europe moves toward renewables, underinvestment in infrastructure continues to waste green energy while households remain exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices.

By Sabina Mammadli