Investment in Cleantech is predicted to outpace fossil fuels for the first time in 2025.

The S&P Global Commodity Insights report: Top Cleantech Trends for 2025, underscores the growing dominance of renewable technologies like solar PV.

Cleantech energy supply investments, including renewable power generation, green hydrogen production, and carbon capture and storage (CCS), will reach $670 billion in 2025, marking the first time these investments will outpace oil and gas spending. Solar PV is expected to represent half of all cleantech investments and two-thirds of installed megawatts.

This shift underscores the growing dominance of renewable technologies, with solar PV expected to represent half of all cleantech investments and two-thirds of installed megawatts.  

However, despite this significant financial commitment, the overall investment levels remain insufficient to meet urgent climate goals, particularly the target of tripling renewable capacity by 2030. 

The Global CleanTech Market

The global market for clean technologies is set to rise from $700 billion in 2023 to more than $2 trillion by 2035, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Trade in clean technologies is also expected to rise sharply. In a decade's time, it more than triples to reach $575 billion, more than 50% larger than the global trade in natural gas today.  

China continues to dominate the global cleantech market, producing more that 80% of the world's solar panels.

The US has imposed tariffs on imports from China for a long time and, as a result, most of its supply already comes from other producers. Only 4% of China’s total exports of solar power and wind power equipment and EVs go to the US, compared with 15% of China’s overall exports.

The US now represents only 7% of the global market for newly installed solar power plants, and even the European Union and the US combined make up less than 20%.

Half of all China’s exports of solar and wind power equipment and electric vehicles (EVs) now go to the Global South, according to UN Comtrade data. Emerging and developing countries have driven most of the recent growth in export volumes.

Examples include solar power booms in South Africa and Pakistan, and strong growth in Brazil and Thailand. The five largest importers of wind power technology from China are all developing countries – South Africa, Egypt, Chile, Brazil and Uzbekistan – as are the five largest growth markets for solar: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia and India. Two Global South countries also feature on the list of the five largest importers of EVs – Brazil and Thailand.

Richard Wheeler Associates works with technology-led companies in CleanTech. 

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