26 June 2025
Paid To Pollute: Fossil Fuel Companies Bag €21.4 Billion In Power Bill-Funded Gas Plant Subsidies
BRUSSELS, 26 JUNE 2025 — New analysis by Beyond Fossil Fuels reveals that just 10 European fossil fuel utilities have secured €21.4 billion worth of contracts for their gas plants via European capacity markets since 2015. The funds are raised through levies on electricity bills and handed to fossil fuel companies to keep their gas plants on standby at a time when Europe should be delivering on its climate targets and driving down bills.
The top beneficiary in the Fossil Gas Freeloaders league table is Czech energy giant EP Group, the parent company of EPH, which has raked in over €4 billion in capacity contracts awarded by national governments to gas plants since 2015 [1]. Polish utilities Orlen Group and PGE are the second and third highest recipients, while Italy’s Enel and the UK’s SSE make up the top five.
“This is Europe’s great gas giveaway,” said Juliet Phillips, energy campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels. “The same companies that fuelled the energy crisis and profited from the subsequent price spikes are now being handed money raised from energy bills to lock in decades more gas dependency. They are quite literally being paid to pollute.”
Fossil Gas Freeloaders
In Germany, energy companies RWE and Uniper, who reported a combined €6.7 billion in profits last year [2], have secured more than €2.4 billion in capacity contracts for their gas plants, primarily through schemes in Great Britain and Italy. Both have called for the creation of a German capacity market and are backing controversial plans by the German government to tender 20 GW of gas power plant capacity [3], a move that runs counter to climate targets, and could add up to €32.4 billion to German energy bills [4].
In the UK, capacity contracts to fossil fuel companies have topped £12.5 billion, with contracts lasting up to 2040—a decade beyond when the government has promised to produce at least 95% of Great Britain’s power without burning fossil fuels [5].
In Poland, fossil fuel firms are receiving 17-year contracts worth billions, with Orlen and PGE jointly securing over €5 billion in capacity market allocations for their gas plants.
Meanwhile, in Czechia, EP Group is not only Europe’s top beneficiary of capacity market handouts, but is also advocating for new subsidy schemes at home [6]. The company continues its practice of purchasing loss-making fossil assets and pressing governments for compensation in exchange for closing them.
Campaigners are calling on national governments to urgently reconsider all market mechanisms that favour fossil fuel power plants and, instead, prioritise support for clean flexibility solutions like storage, interconnection and grid enhancing technologies [7].
“Fossil fuel companies have turned these public subsidies into a profit machine. They’re not just adding money to energy bills; they’re crowding out the clean technologies that would make bills cheaper in the first place. Instead of bankrolling polluters, governments should be backing wind and solar, storage, smarter grids, and demand-side solutions that give us back control of our power systems by ending fossil fuel dependence for good,” added Phillips.
“Capacity payments are locking Europe into an outdated energy model. By favouring volatile fossil-based energy sources, they risk undermining energy security, slowing down the European energy transition, and funnelling public money to some of Europe’s worst polluters, such as EPH and its billionaire owner, Daniel Kretinsky. Renewables are the way forward, and the antiquated system of capacity payments for fossil fuels is standing in the way,” said Brian Schubiner, senior energy transition finance coordinator at WWF’s European policy office.
Notes:
- Top 10 Recipients of European Capacity Market Contracts for Fossil Gas Plants: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mlxmwSnfO-9yR2mYeu417NhHZishPQktMcCAOxjsza4/edit?gid=1782875862#gid=1782875862
- RWE’s 2024 profits: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/rwe-fy24-profit-rises-lifts-dividend-sees-weak-adj-earnings-fy25-confirms-mid-long-term
Uniper’s 2024 profits: https://www.uniper.energy/news/uniper-posts-strong-2024-earnings-and-significantly-reduces-business-risks - Uniper: https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2497797-german-utilities-doubt-25gw-gas-plant-additions-by-2030
RWE: https://www.rwe.com/en/press/interviews/the-energy-system-should-not-be-on-a-knife-edge - https://foes.de/publikationen/2025/2025-04_FOES_BUND_Kraftwerkskosten.pdf
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/clean-power-2030-action-plan/clean-power-2030-action-plan-a-new-era-of-clean-electricity-main-report#:~:text=In%20a%20typical%20weather%20year,well%20below%2050gCO2e%2F
- https://www.irozhlas.cz/ekonomika/energetika-cesko-net4gas_2401160900_mst
- Capacity remuneration mechanisms in Europe is a report from Aurora Energy Research, commissioned by Beyond Fossil Fuels published in January 2025. It finds that since 2015, European capacity markets have allocated nearly €53 billion to fossil fuel power plants—almost three times the funding awarded to clean flexibility solutions: https://beyondfossilfuels.org/2025/01/28/capacity-remuneration-mechanisms-in-europe-report/
Contact:
Juliet Phillips, Energy Campaigner, Beyond Fossil Fuels
[email protected], +44 7443 503328
Brian Schubiner, Senior Energy Transition Finance Coordinator, WWF European policy office
[email protected]
Alastair Clewer, Head of Media, Beyond Fossil Fuels
[email protected], +4917643307185
About:
Beyond Fossil Fuels is a collective civil society campaign committed to ensuring all of Europe’s electricity is generated from fossil-free, renewable energy by 2035. It expands and builds upon the Europe Beyond Coal campaign, and its goal of a coal-free Europe in power and heat by 2030 at the latest. www.beyondfossilfuels.org