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 channeling funds into expanding renewable energy capacity and at the same time into modernizing transmission and distribution grids across the Member States and supporting large-scale electricity storage solutions to maintain grid stability, the RRF contributes to the objective of increasing the share of renewable energy to at least 42.5% by 2030. It fosters a modern and decarbonised electricity systems in Europe.
Alongside these investments, the RRF supports Member States in adopting investment-enabling reforms aimed at expediting renewable energy permitting, faster access to the grids and a better balancing of grids.
Investments in Clean Power
While many investments in renewable energy generation are nowadays market-based, public support to renewable energy sources (RES) still plays a major role in enabling the European Union to meet its climate objectives. Thanks to the RRF, thousands of new solar panels, wind turbines and other renewable systems are being deployed throughout the EU.
More than 60 GW in 2026, almost 33% of the additional renewable energy capacity deployed in Europe since 2021 committed in 19 Member States´ RRPs to increase the capacity of RES.
Importantly, this only includes the direct commitments for investments into renewable capacity in the plans. The results are signifcantly bigger if taken together with the other enabling measures, the 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 hugely 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 in industry, and delivers lasting change for people and the planet.
Powering millions: The renewable capacity supported by the RRF is expected to generate enough electricity each year to cover the needs of more than 41.5 million households across the EU, equivalent to the entire number of households in Germany. This means more European households powered by wind, solar and hydropower, and fewer reliant on volatile fossil fuels.
The commitments for deployment of additional renewable capacity are complemented by energy saving interventions, with significant support to retrofitting of private dwellings and residential buildings.
Renewable electricity not only supports the consumption of households, it can also reduce the dependency on fossil fuel imports, increase energy security and lower energy bills.
The renewable electricity generated through RRF investments as well as the energy efficiency investments contribute directly to reducing the EU’s reliance on imported fossil fuels. The electricity generated from RRF investments in renewable energy could displace almost 11.51 bcm, equivalent to almost 12% of the reduction in gas imports from Russia achieved since 2021.
This amounts approximately to the annual inland gas demand of Romania. This helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increases energy independence from external suppliers, such as Russia.
Enabling the Energy Transition: Grid and Storage Investments
Delivering clean energy to European households and businesses requires the 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, cross-border interconnectors, and large-scale electricity storage.
In key regions, notably the Baltics and Southeastern Europe, 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. Over 21,000 MW of additional transmission and distribution capacity is being enabled—enough to carry the full output of around 5,125 new onshore wind turbines. |
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, 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. |  |
As Europe increases its share of variable renewable energy sources like wind and solar, flexibility becomes essential. That’s why the RRF supports new energy storage projects—ranging from large-scale batteries to other grid-balancing solutions.
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 storage power capacity committed 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 translates into more than 27 GWh of energy storage capacity. The estimated 27 GWh of energy storage capacity is enough to power 2.5 million households for a day — contributing significantly to grid flexibility and renewable energy integration.
In conclusion, 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 taking into account the very significant additonal enabling effects of investments into the infrastructure and of the permitting and market reforms, the investments will lead to far-reaching results:
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 in the reforms it enables. Investments go hand-in-hand with reforms. Across Member States, the RRF has accelerated changes to streamline permitting, improve energy market design, and speed up the integration of renewables in the electricity grids.
These reforms are unlocking private investment, reducing barriers to deployment, and ensuring the benefits of the RRF extend well beyond 2026, in addition to the direct effects of the RRF investments as set out above. Together, the reforms form a lasting foundation for a clean, secure, and competitive European energy system.
The examples below aim to illustrative how structural reforms in the RRPs contribute to creating impacts beyond 2026 and the commitments outlined in the RRPs.
