Europe's renewable energy transition may have an underutilized ace in the hole: its existing hydropower infrastructure. A new report published by energy think tank Ember reveals that integrating wind and solar capacity into existing hydropower sites across seven European Union countries could unlock as much as 25 gigawatts of additional clean energy without requiring new grid connections. According to the Ember report, released in July 2026, the so-called "hybridisation" of existing hydropower facilities in Austria, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and Spain could allow those nations to integrate 18 percent of the new renewable capacity they are expected to deploy by 2030, all without drawing on additional transmission infrastructure.
The report further finds that hybridisation could nearly double the utilization of existing grid connections, substantially reducing the financial pressure to expand transmission networks. The potential gains are striking. Hydropower plants currently eligible for hybridisation achieve just 19 percent of their maximum output on average, according to Ember.
Integrating wind resources could push that utilization rate to 36 percent, while solar integration could lift it to 31 percent. These figures point to a significant opportunity to extract greater value from assets that are already in place and already connected to the grid. The timing of the report is critical.
The seven countries assessed by Ember plan to deploy a combined 138 GW of wind and solar power between 2026 and 2030, based on scenarios from grid operators. That represents more than a 50 percent increase over their combined wind and solar capacity of 235 GW recorded in 2025, all to be added within a five-year window. Meanwhile, countries such as Austria and Bulgaria currently have no grid capacity available for new generation, while Portugal and Romania face extremely limited headroom.
Grid congestion is increasingly being identified as one of the most acute structural barriers to Europe's clean energy ambitions. Ember estimates that a shortfall of at least 120 GW exists between available grid capacity and anticipated renewable growth by 2030 across the continent. The problem is not confined to Europe: globally, more than 2,500 GW of renewable energy, large load, and storage projects are currently stalled due to insufficient transmission infrastructure, according to the International Energy Agency.
The IEA has called for annual grid investment to rise by approximately 50 percent by 2030 from the current level of $400 billion, while also flagging the need to scale up grid supply chains and manage workforce challenges more effectively. In 2025, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol described hydropower as "the forgotten giant of electricity," underscoring how the sector's potential has long been overlooked in energy planning discussions. Hydropower currently ranks as the world's third-largest power generation source, behind coal and natural gas.
In 2024, hydropower produced approximately 4,500 terawatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to roughly 14 percent of global electricity output, a figure comparable to the combined output of all solar and wind power generated worldwide. Despite the clear potential, the regulatory environment for hybrid projects remains underdeveloped across most of Europe. Of the seven countries reviewed by Ember, only Spain and Portugal have established formal rules governing hybrid renewable projects.
The absence of regulatory frameworks elsewhere is seen as a significant obstacle to investment and deployment. Some early-mover projects are already offering a template for what hybridisation can look like in practice. In Portugal, the Tmega wind farm is being developed in a hybrid configuration, sharing a substation with the Tmega hydroelectric complex.
In France, the Lazer floating solar project, which opened in 2023, installed 50,000 panels on the reservoir of the Lazer dam hydropower facility, reportedly doubling the site's renewable energy output while minimizing additional land use. Ember's analysis suggests that regulatory reform across the remaining five countries would be essential to accelerate the adoption of hybrid models and help Europe meet its 2030 clean energy targets. By making smarter use of existing infrastructure rather than waiting for new grid capacity, hybrid hydropower projects could represent one of the more pragmatic near-term solutions to both Europe's energy security concerns and its decarbonisation commitments.
Source: OilPrice.com, Ember Energy report (July 2026), International Energy Agency.
Source: oilprice.com