- Renewable energy investment plateaus after last year’s decline
- Co-located solar and storage investment hits a record
Renewable energy investment in the first half of 2026 reached $327.5 billion, on par with the preceding six-month level but down 21% from its peak in the second half of 2024. The numbers show that the broader growth story for renewables remains intact despite policy changes in key markets like the US and China.
Investors flee revenue uncertainty as assets co-located with storage boom
Asset finance for stand-alone utility-scale solar and onshore wind, which usually makes up two thirds of annual investment, once again accounted for less than half of investment in 1H 2026. This partly reflects tighter scrutiny of revenue risks and returns.
Standalone utility-scale solar was hit harder than onshore wind. Financing fell 20% year-on-year to $75.4 billion – the lowest investment volume seen since the solar boom began in 2021. Concerns about curtailment, power price cannibalization, and grid congestion led asset financing to fall in multiple markets – particularly China, Brazil and parts of Europe.
Those same challenges drove investors and developers toward projects with co-located storage. Co-located assets received a record $25 billion investment in the first half of the year, nearly double 2H 2025 levels and triple the amount seen in 1H 2025. The US and Australia continue to lead global co-located solar and storage investments in 2026.
US investment surged ahead of tax credit deadline
The US was the second-largest market in 1H 2026, behind China but ahead of the European Union. Investment was up 54% year-on-year as project developers pushed to hit deadlines for claiming tax credits and to support unprecedented load growth from data centers. Solar investment rose 41% year-on-year to a record $45.8 billion, while wind investment more than doubled to $13.8 billion.
Solar and onshore wind projects that have preserved tax-credit eligibility are set to support near-term build in the US, until the last such projects come online in 2030.
European onshore wind bucks the trend
Wind investment reached $92.3 billion in 1H 2026, down 27% from the same period last year.
Offshore wind investment plummeted 72% year-on-year. Poor auction results from 2024-25, including a canceled auction in Denmark and a failed auction in Germany, alongside higher capital expenditure and financing costs, thinned the pipeline of projects that could close financing in the first half of 2026.
Onshore wind investment reached $80.7 billion globally in 1H 2026, down 4% year-on-year. However, European investment grew – with Germany, Romania and Serbia attracting record onshore wind investment in the first half of this year on the back of recent auctions.
Regions to watch
China accounted for a mere quarter of global investment in 1H 2026, sliding from over half of global investment in 2022, as developers adjusted revenue expectations following last year’s power market reforms. However, further revenue support through contracts-for-difference auctions could boost investment in the second half of the year.
The 1H 2026 investment numbers put a spotlight on several other markets:
- Vietnam investments surged fourfold as ambitious renewable targets and the rollout of new clean power tenders helped it reclaim its regional leadership position. Malaysia and the Philippines also grew as Southeast Asian investment crossed $12 billion.
- Nigeria was among the sub-Saharan African markets to see a small-scale solar boom, as rising fuel prices due to the Iran war improved the competitiveness of solar and storage for backup power.
- Central Asia saw six-monthly investment exceed $4 billion for the second time in a row on the back of strong onshore wind activity in Kazakhstan.
- Brazil drove global biofuels investment to $7.7 billion, the highest level since 2H 2008. New domestic policies, along with tightening international markets, are helping spur new billion-dollar production facilities.
New renewable energy additions in 2026 are expected to be below the 2025 level – the first year-on-year slide in over a decade, reflecting recent investment declines. However, the setback is temporary. BloombergNEF expects new capacity additions to rise again from 2027.
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