In 2025 the European Union sold wind turbines to the rest of the world for 3.1 billion euros, up 10.8% from the previous year, according to data released by Eurostat on October 20. With solar panels, the picture changes completely. The Twenty-Seven spent 8.0 billion euros buying them abroad, and China accounted for 98.6% of those imports.
So, when it comes to wind, Europe still manufactures and exports. And solar? Almost all of the panels entering the EU in 2025 came from Chinese factories, so the module installed this winter on a roof in Seville or Valladolid probably originated in China.
European wind turbines heading to the United Kingdom
Eurostat analyzes three groups of green products (wind turbines, solar panels, and liquid biofuels). The wind sector is the EU’s top export. In addition to the value, the quantity sold rose by 9.5%, so it’s not just that the machines are more expensive.
The first customer was the United Kingdom, which took 31% of those sales. Behind it come the United States (24%), Taiwan (12%), and Turkey (11%). This is detailed in Eurostat’s analysis of the trade in green-energy products.
Purchases of turbines manufactured abroad, by contrast, remained at 700 million. The difference is about 2.4 billion in Europe’s favor. And that, in the midst of the green-industry debate, is no small matter.
Cheap panels and almost all from China
In photovoltaic modules the opposite happened, as imports fell by 27.7% in value, to 8.0 billion euros, while volume only dropped by 4.0%. For Eurostat, that suggests the average price of each imported panel fell.
China was “by far the largest supplier” of solar panels, in the words of the statistical office. For anyone thinking of installing panels at home to cut the electricity bill, the inevitable question is: where does each rooftop module come from?
European sales of solar panels abroad barely reached 0.5 billion, down 23.6%. Yet, the volume grew by 2.6%. Meanwhile, Chinese scientists are already proposing to cover entire facades with solar panels.
China gains ground in wind
Not even wind power is entirely spared, because imports of wind turbines rose by 40.6% in value. In volume, the jump was 69.0%. They remain small compared with what Europe sells, but the trend is there.
China accounted for 59.6% of wind-turbine imports, up from 41.3% in 2024. India, which previously topped the list, came in second with 22.2%. In Spain, for its part, parks are being renewed, such as the Casares complex, with 38 fewer wind turbines and double the energy.
115-meter blades in Aalborg
Much of that industrial muscle is in Northern Europe. Siemens Gamesa manufactures 115-meter blades in Aalborg (Denmark) and Le Havre (France), and installs the nacelles in Cuxhaven (Germany). The nacelle is the large housing that holds the turbine’s machinery, as explained by the European agency CINEA in its project data sheet for NEMO.
Each of those blades is “longer than a football field,” the agency notes. They are for the offshore SG 14-236 turbine, rated at 14 megawatts, which can reach 15 with a reinforcement mode. The EU Innovation Fund provides 69.8 million euros to the project, whose three factories were ready by April 30, 2026.
The Danes, in fact, had already boasted the first turbine with green steel and recyclable blades. In Spain, too, the first wind-turbine blade recycling plant began operations.
Sales with unknown destination
However, these figures carry a fine print, because Eurostat counts euros and volume, not megawatts, and that makes it impossible to know exactly how much capacity is moving. Which European countries sell more turbines? The note does not say.
According to the statistical office, 14% of turbine imports have no country assigned due to confidentiality. The same is true for 12% of exports. Biofuels, the third product, fell to 2.7 billion in purchases and 1.0 billion in sales.
Crunching the numbers, the EU bought external green-energy products worth 11.4 billion and sold 4.6 billion. Turbines barely keep things afloat, but the panels, for now, continue to come from China. The note has been published on Eurostat’s website as “EU trade in wind turbines increased in 2025.”
Foto: Siemens Gamesa
