Infrastructure opportunities in Europe’s energy & digital

Europe has ambitious targets. One is for the EU to become the first net zero continent by 2050. Another is to achieve an almost total digital transition across the EU by 2030. These shifts are advancing, but still require enormous strategic planning and regulatory support, combined with commensurate pools of private capital.

The good news is that private capital is active and investing. At the same time, there is a new impetus among policymakers to create a stronger, more competitive, and more sustainable Europe which will create new investing opportunities. As I have said before, and will say again, this all starts with infrastructure.

The catalyst for action in Europe has been the heightening of geostrategic tensions. Germany has released its fiscal debt brake to create a €500 billion fund for infrastructure investment, including €100 billion for its energy transition. Meanwhile, the EU has launched a €200 billion mobilisation programme to help Europe become a leader in AI, including €20 billion for new AI gigafactories.

These initiatives, alongside many others, are casting Europe in a new light among domestic and international investors. They are creating demand for infrastructure funds that will be critical for channelling long-term investor capital where it needs go.

In June this year, solar became the largest source of energy in the EU, ahead of nuclear and wind, according to energy think tank Ember¹. This is already a great achievement, but there is much more to do to wean the continent off fossil fuels. Some of the more conservative estimates from the IEA suggest that green energy investment in Europe needs to increase by 60% from 2022 levels to €530 billion annually² in 2030 for the EU to meet its interim target of a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. This offers huge investment opportunities for private capital in the years to come.

It’s a similar story of progress and ongoing investment requirement in the digital transition. According to the FTTH Council Europe, 74.6% of homes and businesses were ‘passed’ by fibre networks as of late 2024. European Commission research from the prior year estimated that around €114 billion of additional investment was needed to help complete the rollout, and in doing so, give individuals and businesses access to the best digital infrastructure3.

These are examples of opportunities in distinct fields serving the energy and digital transitions. Increasingly, there are also synergistic investment opportunities. Take, for example, the development of data centres that can fuel the adoption of AI and cloud computing. The power needed by those centres creates more demand not only for the upgrade and stabilisation of our grids to meet the AI driven energy demand but also for renewable energy, which can in some instances be developed alongside those sites. At the same time, the excess heat generated can be captured and diverted to provide carbon-free district heating for local homes.

This kind of joined-up thinking in the field requires a similarly joined-up policy. Invest Europe and infrastructure members are calling for a holistic infrastructure strategy to incentivise private investment. And we need more dialogue between investors and regulators on how public finance can be best leveraged to attract global private finance in high-value projects.

Ultimately, private capital and policymakers share many of the same goals. Not least to place future-proofed infrastructure at the heart of a stronger, more sustainable, and more successful Europe. That will create exciting opportunities for investors far into the future.

Frank Amberg

Member, Limited Partners Platform Council, Invest Europe
Vice-Chair, Infrastructure Roundtable, Invest Europe
Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure Germany, AltamarCAM Partners

1 – https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-is-eus-biggest-power-source-for-the-first-time-ever/#:~:text=Solar%20power%20just%20became%20the,narrowly%20overtaken%20in%20June%202025

2 – https://www.energy-transitions.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Financing-the-energy-transition-in-the-EU_vf.pdf

3 –https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/investment-and-funding-needs-digital-decade-connectivity-targets