Clean Energy

The move towards cleaner electricity creates demand for both generating equipment and the technology around it. In Renewables 2026, the IEA forecasts almost 4,800 gigawatts of additional renewable generating capacity worldwide between 2026 and 2031, with solar accounting for more than three-quarters of that growth. This is a forecast of the equipment’s generating capacity, not the amount of electricity it will produce. Connecting new projects and balancing their output also requires investment in grids and storage.

Europe’s battery market shows how that need is translating into installations. SolarPower Europe reports 36 GWh of new storage capacity installed in 2025 and forecasts 138 GWh of annual additions by 2030. GWh measures how much energy batteries can store. Larger projects serving the electricity grid accounted for more than half of the 2025 additions. For suppliers, this creates demand for batteries, power electronics and control software, although the pace of new projects still depends on financing, permits and grid connections.

European solar research is working on getting more electricity from the same surface. On 5 May 2026, Fraunhofer ISE opened its Pero-Si-SCALE laboratory to help manufacturers develop tandem solar cells. These combine silicon with another light-absorbing material, perovskite, to capture more of the sunlight reaching the panel. The laboratory helps companies test larger cells and manufacturing processes, bringing the work closer to factory production.

Fusion is at an earlier stage, yet it is already creating demanding manufacturing projects. On 16 September 2026, Fusion for Energy announced completion of Europe’s fifth and final vacuum-vessel sector for ITER. Ansaldo Nucleare, Westinghouse and Walter Tosto worked with a wider European supply chain to build the sections of the chamber that will contain the fusion experiments. Completing them advances construction of the research device in France; ITER itself will not generate electricity for the grid.