Engineering Europe’s energy transition
Europe’s offshore energy landscape is undergoing a simultaneous acceleration and transition. As one of the world’s most mature regions for offshore wind development – and home to a vast legacy of nuclear, oil, and gas infrastructure now reaching end of life – Europe is navigating the complexities of building tomorrow’s low-carbon capacity while dismantling the assets of the past
New data from the Energy Industries Council (EIC) and Decom Mission highlights how these dynamics are converging into one of the most technically intensive and strategically significant periods the European energy supply chain has faced in decades.
STRONG FOUNDATIONS
Offshore wind has long been Europe’s flagship success in renewable power. No other region matches Europe’s depth of expertise, breadth of policies, and scale of installed capacity. Yet maturity brings exposure: in the last five years the region has absorbed the majority of global pressures impacting the sector, from supply chain constraints to interest rate spikes.
Commissioning activity reflects these fluctuations. After a slowdown that saw only five new farms enter production in 2022 – albeit delivering an impressive 3.7GW thanks to Hornsea Two – activity rebounded in 2023 with nine new projects totalling 3.3GW. The past 12 months have seen another six farms commissioned, adding 2.7GW. Beneath those short-term cycles, however, lies a formidable long-term project pipeline: more than 411GW across 386 projects, representing 41% of the world’s future offshore wind capacity outside China.
Growth remains anchored by the stalwarts of the sector. The UK leads projected capacity additions through 2035, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland. Meanwhile, floating offshore wind, which is set to become commercial at scale by the early 2030s, now represents roughly 37% of planned European capacity. The UK again leads, but southern Europe and the Mediterranean are expected to dominate floating deployment in the longer term.
Despite this, macroeconomic headwinds, delays in permitting, rising costs, grid readiness concerns, and politicised disinformation have forced developers to shelve or rephase projects. Some have withdrawn from specific markets entirely. OEMs have also been compelled to retrench, adjusting portfolios and pricing to restore financial stability. This has created uncertainty across the supply chain, from component manufacturers to marine contractors.
Still, 2025 has been a turning point. European governments have initiated broad reforms, refining auction mechanisms, introducing long-term industrial strategies, and adjusting regulatory frameworks. Mature markets are now charting modified, more resilient development models, while emerging markets are using these lessons to avoid early structural pitfalls.
Nonetheless, bottlenecks remain. Europe’s vertically integrated supply chain – home to Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, Nordex, and GE Vernova – still faces shortages in component manufacturing capacity, installation vessels, and port infrastructure. Competition from Chinese OEMs is intensifying, prompting new financing measures aimed at reinforcing domestic manufacturing and logistics hubs.
DECOMISSIONING RAMP UP
Alongside these renewable ambitions, Europe is confronting a vast and long-running decommissioning burden. The UK & Europe Late Life & Decommissioning Report, released by EIC and Decom Mission, places the value of the region’s nuclear decommissioning pipeline above $120 billion, with $89 billion already awarded. More than 130 reactors across Europe are now in active or planned dismantling programmes, led by major sites at Sellafield, Magnox, and Dounreay in the UK, followed by extensive activity in Germany and France.
Oil and gas decommissioning is similarly robust. Across continental Europe, upcoming work totals $16.5 billion, with plug and abandonment (P&A) operations accounting for nearly half of expenditure. The UK North Sea alone anticipates roughly £27 billion ($34 billion) of decommissioning spend through 2032, much of which hinges on availability of rigs, vessels, and skilled crews.
Beyond these subsectors, dismantling of coal and refinery assets is accelerating, particularly in Austria, Denmark, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Large-scale refinery closures across Western Europe are creating engineering challenges that involve complex demolition sequencing, contamination management, and waste treatment.
The early phases of onshore and offshore wind decommissioning are now emerging as well, predominantly in Germany, Denmark, and the UK. This marks the beginning of an operational overlap in which the same vessels, ports, and specialist personnel required to build renewable capacity are also in demand to retire first-generation assets, tightening the supply chain further.
EIC CEO Stuart Broadley notes that “end-of-life planning is now a strategic exercise.” With dismantling activities increasingly competing with energy transition construction for resources, securing port access, vessel slots, and experienced crews early has become essential to keeping both cost and schedule under control.
Sam Long, CEO of Decom Mission, emphasises that decommissioning itself is a growth market. Efficient and environmentally responsible asset retirement relies on disciplined project management and access to heavy-lift vessels, specialised cranes, and a highly skilled workforce – capabilities that are in high demand across the entire energy system.
DUAL-PIPELINE DECADE AHEAD
Europe now faces twin imperatives: accelerate offshore wind deployment to meet decarbonisation goals, and safely dismantle ageing infrastructure across nuclear, oil, gas, and conventional power. Both markets are vast, technically demanding, and increasingly interdependent. For the engineering community, this convergence represents not only a challenge, but one of the most significant multi-decade opportunities in the global energy transition.
