On 27 May the European Commission released a Communication on its “EU-wide assessment of the final updated national energy and climate plans Delivering the Union’s 2030 energy and climate objectives” (COM(2025) 274). It claimed 10 Member States had “set ambitious targets for newly installed capacity by 2030, aiming to meet the indicative 5% target set in the revised [Renewable Energy Directive]”. Our reading of the accompanying Staff Working Document is rather different: five Member States appear to have such a target, and they are not the big ones, nor (except for one) the ones most active in the SET Plan Steering Group, which should be the forum where national policies to support innovation in energy technology are connected to European ones. Three countries don’t have explicit targets, but have relevant measures that put them close to having one. A further three have country projections that include innovative RES, but it’s unclear from their plans if these projections are actual targets.

Details are in our analysis of the SWD

Opportunity to react

The European Commission must use the opportunity of its imminent “Guidance on innovative forms of renewables deployment (agri-PV, building-integrated PV (BIPV) and balcony solar systems) and on dedicated grid and storage areas” to cover innovative renewables and help the Member States do better in providing for them, as we have urged.