Renewable energy deployment continues at record pace globally, with solar, onshore wind, and battery storage attracting the largest shares of clean energy capital. Total global renewable investment exceeded $1.8 trillion in 2025, with solar alone accounting for over half. Cost declines have continued, with utility-scale solar now undercutting new thermal generation in most competitive wholesale power markets.
Grid integration has become the binding constraint on further renewables deployment in many regions. Transmission infrastructure, interconnection queues, and grid-forming inverter technology all face bottlenecks. California, Texas, and several European markets are experimenting with negative power prices during peak renewable output periods, which is accelerating battery storage deployment to time-shift clean electrons to higher-value evening peaks.
Battery storage has emerged as the critical enabling technology. U.S. battery storage deployments tripled year-over-year in 2024 and are on pace for continued strong growth in 2025-2026. Lithium-ion remains dominant for the 4-hour duration market, with emerging long-duration technologies including iron-air, vanadium flow, and thermal storage competing for the 8+ hour segment. Costs continue to fall and cycle lives continue to extend.
Corporate procurement and state-level clean energy standards provide meaningful demand visibility. Technology companies, particularly those building AI data centers, have become among the largest renewables buyers as they seek carbon-free power for their growing load. This demand is increasingly met through direct PPAs and nuclear partnerships, with several major hyperscale cloud providers signing first-of-kind small modular reactor agreements in the past year.