Renewables Hit Record Led by Solar

In the first half of 2023, new investments in renewable energy soared to $358 billion, a 22% increase from the beginning of last year and an all-time high for any six-month period. This is based on the most recent investment statistics from the BloombergNEF Renewable Energy Investment Tracker report for the second half of 2023, which was released on August 21, 2023.

$335 billion of this total was allocated for project deployment, including small-scale solar and asset finance. This increased by 14% from the first half of 2022 and shows how the energy transition is still accelerating as more renewable energy is produced.

This year, companies that use renewable energy have also been successful in raising equity to support their development and growth. The amount of expansion pledges from venture capital and private equity to enterprises that use renewable energy increased by 25% to $10.4 billion in the first half of 2023. In the first half of the year, $12.7 billion in new stock was raised on the public markets, an increase of 25% from 1H 2022.

With $177 billion in new investments, up 16% from 1H 2022, China was once again the leading market in the first half of 2023. Germany received $11.9 billion, while the US received $36 billion.

Solar investment continues to set new records.

The results from the stellar 1H 2023 were primarily driven by solar. Large- and small-scale systems received a combined $239 billion in investments during the first half of the year, accounting for two-thirds of all global investments in renewable energy, a startling 43% increase from the same period in 2022.

In the first half of 2023, China accounted for around half of all large- and small-scale solar investment. This was mostly attributed to lower module costs, a healthy rooftop PV market, and the country's so-called energy megabases, which are intended to build big wind and solar projects primarily in arid regions.

With $25.5 billion invested in both large- and small-scale solar during 1H 2023, the United States came in a distant second. However, given the country's historic Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the easing of supply chain restrictions, this represented a record-breaking and outstanding 75% improvement from 1H 2022.