Renewable Energy Market Review 2026

China's renewable energy sector continues to set global benchmarks, with the country adding between 79 and 87 GW of new wind capacity in 2024 alone — representing nearly 70% of worldwide installations — while cumulative installed capacity surpassed 520 GW. A defining feature of this growth is the rapid rise of hybrid wind turbine towers, with steel–concrete composite structures now accounting for over 33–40% of new onshore wind deployments, a threefold increase in project awards compared to 2023. Leading turbine OEMs are integrating hybrid tower capabilities into their standard offerings, with specialist suppliers commanding more than 80% of the domestic supply market. Crucially, the risk profile of these structures spans product quality and third-party liability across different lifecycle stages — a gap that traditional insurance products, applied in isolation, struggle to address. We see coordinated frameworks combining Product Liability and Product Quality Guarantee Insurance as the most effective route to improving insurability, strengthening project bankability, and building long-term stakeholder confidence.

The North American renewable energy market continues to grow, anchored by the Inflation Reduction Act, corporate climate commitments, and accelerating electricity demand — with solar and battery storage leading new capacity additions. Complexity is rising, however: elongated interconnection queues, constrained transmission, higher construction costs, and surging data center demand driven by AI and cloud computing are tightening grid access, intensifying supply-demand pressures, and introducing new underwriting considerations around grid reliability. The insurance market remains broadly soft — a benign catastrophe year in 2025 has supported continued property market softening, while casualty capacity flowing into renewables is helping to counter persistent rate pressures. Natural catastrophe risk remains a key underwriting variable, with a notable eastward shift in 'Tornado Alley' and growing scrutiny of equipment performance across solar, inverters, and battery systems reinforcing a more technical approach. Well-structured projects with experienced sponsors and strong risk management are achieving competitive outcomes; early insurer engagement and clear risk presentation remain essential to securing stable, favorable terms.

South Africa stands out as one of Africa's most dynamic renewable energy markets, underpinned by abundant solar and wind resources, growing corporate power purchase agreements, and a procurement framework that continues to demonstrate bankability. The seventh bid window under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) drew 48 responses totaling more than 10.2 GW of proposed capacity, reflecting the depth of private sector appetite for the market . Yet the primary constraint on further expansion is no longer cost or financing — it is transmission. Grid saturation across high-resource provinces including the Northern, Eastern and Western Cape is causing delays and allocation disputes, driving investment toward provinces with spare capacity, distributed behind-the-meter systems, and hybrid solar-plus-storage projects. The insurance market reflects this nuance: rates are stable to softening overall but remain elevated for BESS and nat cat-exposed sites, with placement strategies combining local and international capacity, tailored to the specific risk characteristics of each project.

The CEEMEA renewable energy insurance market continues to attract strong capital flows in 2026, with established players expanding lines and new entrants arriving through mergers, acquisitions, and regional branch openings — drawn by the region's large, complex risks, compelling premium levels, and historically favorable natural catastrophe profiles. Market appetite spans a broad technology mix, from solar PV and onshore wind through to BESS, floating solar, and green hydrogen, supported by a market structure that combines international carriers, regional offices, domestic markets, and MGAs to give sponsors meaningful placement optionality. Following prior years of loss activity, underwriters are applying selective scrutiny to technologies with a history of construction or operational challenges, though broader softening trends persist — well-engineered, data-rich projects continue to secure improved terms, and strong risk presentation remains the most effective tool for maximizing outcomes.

Latin America continues to see solid momentum across its renewable energy sector, with renewables maintaining a share above 65% of the total energy mix and total electricity generation reaching 153 TWh in 2025 — a year-on-year increase of 2.7% — reinforcing the region's strategic role in the global energy transition. As the renewable footprint expands, so too does the complexity of the risk landscape, with regulatory, environmental, technical, and social challenges emerging alongside more established exposures. Transmission infrastructure remains the sector's most persistent structural constraint, with grid expansion failing to keep pace with generation growth, resulting in congestion, dispatch limitations, and periodic system instability. The (re)insurance environment remains competitive in response, with rate reductions in the range of 20–30% available for well-managed risks with strong loss records, and growing flexibility in coverage terms. Looking ahead, we are monitoring the strong probability of an El Niño-level event towards Q4 2026, which could amplify drought and flood exposures across different sub-regions and reshape near-term underwriting dynamics.

Australia's renewable energy sector has entered a more complex phase of the energy transition, with renewables accounting for approximately 36% of total national electricity generation by 2025 and surpassing the landmark threshold of 50% of National Electricity Market supply over a full quarter for the first time in late 2025. Strong growth in rooftop solar, wind output, and battery storage is driving this momentum, though large-scale project investment has been uneven due to grid constraints, planning delays, and rising construction and financing costs. Government support mechanisms including the expanded Capacity Investment Scheme are helping to underpin future supply, while policy certainty following the 2025 federal election has supported investor confidence. Against this backdrop, the insurance market remains supportive but highly selective: well-structured, high-quality projects are achieving favorable outcomes, while complex or poorly presented risks continue to face pricing pressure and tighter terms. Natural catastrophe exposure — particularly hail, wind, bushfire, and floods, remains a primary driver of underwriting decisions, reinforced by an increase in equipment failure and design defect claims that has sharpened market discipline.

Asia continues to set the pace of the global energy transition, accounting for 74.2% of new renewable capacity additions in 2025 and increasing installed capacity by 513.3 GW to reach 2,891 GW — or 56.1% of total global renewable capacity. Expansion spans solar, onshore and offshore wind, hydropower, rapidly scaling battery energy storage systems, hybrid installations, and growing floating solar deployments, cementing the region's central role in global decarbonization. Supply chain resilience remains a defining risk: geopolitical tensions, trade policy intervention, logistics disruption, and supplier concentration continue to influence construction schedules, project economics, and insurance outcomes. China's withdrawal of export-linked VAT rebates for solar PV and battery products from April 2026 onward marks a structural inflection point, establishing a higher global price floor for solar and storage components that will continue to reverberate across the region. The insurance market in Asia remains broadly competitive — availability has stabilized and increased, particularly for well-structured, utility-scale projects supported by proven technologies — though underwriting remains highly technical and selective, with insurers differentiating clearly on engineering quality, sponsor capability, and nat-cat exposure.

The Nordic renewable energy sector is navigating a pivotal transition — moving beyond pure capacity additions toward hydrogen and power-to-X developments, grid expansion, and flexibility solutions, even as geopolitical tensions and supply chain uncertainty have slowed investment momentum. Solar has emerged as one of the fastest-growing renewable technologies in the region despite historically low penetration, while onshore wind investment slowed in 2025 due to prolonged permitting timelines. Significant milestones are shaping the outlook: the Bornholm Energy Island project secured a bilateral Denmark–Germany agreement in early 2026 to develop a 3 GW offshore wind hub in the Baltic Sea, Norway's hydropower is increasingly functioning as a strategic flexibility resource for the wider European power system, and Sweden continues to generate approximately 99% of its electricity from low-carbon sources. The (re)insurance market has continued to grow and mature, with new international entrants establishing local underwriting operations in the region for the first time, deepening available capacity and technical expertise. Underwriters are becoming increasingly selective, however; projects that clearly differentiate their risk profile, proactively manage supply chain and OEM exposure, and engage early on nat-cat modelling are best positioned to secure favorable terms.