France and Germany award 3+ GW onshore wind; Sweden and Scotland add offshore

France and Germany completed onshore wind auction rounds that together cleared more than 3 GW of new capacity. WindEurope welcomed the results but flagged that the volumes remain insufficient: Europe needs longer-term market visibility to hit its 2030 buildout targets, and these rounds underscore the gap between current auction cadence and what developers require to commit pipelines.

Sweden's government approved two offshore projects (including Skyborn's Fyrskeppet) but rejected 11 others, triggering immediate pushback from developers and the Swedish wind trade body. Skyborn called for CfD contracts to underpin future projects, warning that merchant exposure makes the economics unworkable at scale. Vattenfall also publicly clashed with the government over both the rejections and the absence of dedicated support mechanisms. The Swedish trade body warned the rejections put the country's electrification plans at risk.

On the construction front, RWE has now installed 36 of the 72 turbines at the 1.1 GW Thor farm off Denmark. In Scotland, Ocean Winds received consent for the 2 GW Caledonia project, one of the larger ScotWind allocations, with a construction start expected by 2030.