Hungary Ends Wind Freeze, Aims for Tenfold Capacity Boost by 2030

Hungary plans to expand wind capacity from 330 MW to 4 GW by 2030, ending a decade-long freeze, while Greenvolt sells a solar park to PPC for €64.2M.

This article was drafted with AI assistance from multiple sources and was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication.

Hungary’s wind energy sector is set for a major revival. The government has announced plans to increase installed wind capacity from roughly 330 megawatts today to about 4 gigawatts by 2030, a more than tenfold jump. Economy and Energy Minister István Kapitány made the announcement in a government statement, signaling an end to the de facto freeze on new wind farm development that has lasted nearly a decade.

The first wind tender, initially planned for a minimum of 700 megawatts, has been expanded to nearly 1,000 megawatts due to strong investor interest, Kapitány said.

Hungary’s wind development ground to a halt in the early 2010s when new tenders stopped. A 2016 rule that kept turbines at least 12 kilometers from residential areas effectively blocked projects, but that restriction was relaxed in 2024, cutting the minimum distance to 700 meters.

To support the expansion, the government plans to invest around €1.5 billion in modernizing transmission and distribution networks, funded through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. Public consultations are underway on legislative changes that would introduce dynamic electricity tariffs, create a legal framework for independent aggregators, simplify permitting and grid connection for renewables, and expand smart meter deployment.

The push comes after a late June 2026 heatwave drove electricity consumption to record levels. During that period, the Paks nuclear plant temporarily reduced output because of high Danube river temperatures, and authorities temporarily allowed higher cooling water discharge temperatures.

In a separate deal, Greenvolt Power has agreed to sell the Kira solar PV park, a 57.47 MWp facility in Királyegyháza, southern Hungary, about 180 kilometers from Budapest, to PPC Group for €64.2 million.