European solar auctions and corporate PPAs accounted for 92 GW of new capacity between 2022 and 2025, according to SolarPower Europe. This was enough to supply roughly 10% of EU households. If treated as a single country, the total exceeds Spain’s 27.6 GW deployed over the same period by more than threefold.
Auction-driven deployment initially faltered after 2021, when installations peaked at 14.8 GW, falling in 2022-23 due to rising equipment costs, low ceiling tariffs, and complex administrative requirements. By 2025, auctions rebounded to a record 25.2 GW, a 23% increase from 2024, although nearly half of auction rounds from 2021-25 attracted bids below capacity, signaling persistent inefficiencies.
Corporate PPAs surged in 2023-24 following the energy crisis but declined in 2025. Uptake varies across Europe: Germany saw signed solar corporate PPAs fall 56%, while Spain maintained more than 2 GW annually. Italy, Poland, and Bulgaria also recorded growth, driven by high wholesale electricity prices and reliance on gas-fired generation.
The report highlights policy measures to sustain auction and PPA markets. Recommendations include equal access to routes to market, technology-specific auction designs, integration of energy storage, recognition of PPAs in carbon accounting, and measures to increase electricity demand through electrification.
Despite growth, EU solar capacity installed in 2025 declined slightly to 65.1 GW from 65.6 GW in 2024, marking the first year-on-year drop since 2016. Recovery to 2025 levels is expected by the end of the decade.
Europe installed 65.1 GW of new solar capacity in 2025, a slight 0.7 % decline from 2024 and the first annual drop since 2016 as residential demand softened and installations shifted toward utility‑scale projects. Total EU solar capacity stood at about 406 GW at the end of December, surpassing the bloc’s 2025 target but raising concerns that the 750 GW 2030 goal will not be reached without renewed policy support.
