Global cleantech manufacturing - statistics & facts
Investments in cleantech manufacturing have soared worldwide, with these technologies set to play a pivotal role in the world’s global push toward decarbonization, energy security, and economic development. Manufacturing capacities of key energy transition technologies are also expanding rapidly. The manufacturing capacity of solar PV alone has risen more than tenfold in the past decade to five gigawatts in 2024. With China currently dominating the market by far, other regions are now trying to bridge the gap and boost their domestic capacities.
Cleantech manufacturing is booming worldwide, with significant expansions in capacity and investment in recent years. This surge is expected to continue as countries look to reduce their reliance on China
Investments in cleantech manufacturing
In 2024, global investment in cleantech factories totaled 112 billion U.S. dollars. Although this was a year-on-year decline of 14 percent, global annual investments in factory facilities for clean technologies, including solar, batteries, wind turbines, and hydrogen electrolyzers, have risen roughly tenfold since 2018. In 2024, three-quarters of this investment went toward manufacturing facilities in mainland China, a slight drop from the country’s record investment share of almost 90 percent the previous year.China dominates clean tech manufacturing
A combination of governmental action, increased investment , and a focus on research and development has seen China rise to become the undisputed leader in cleantech manufacturing. As of 2024, “the world’s factory” dominated the supply chains of the main energy transition minerals, such as gallium, graphite, and silicon, as well as the production capacity of most key clean technologies and their components. This was particularly the case within the solar power segment, with China accounting for more than 90 percent of the global PV wafer and polysilicon manufacturing capacity that year and around 80 percent of PV cells and module capacity. The manufacturing powerhouse also controls the majority of the world’s production capacity for lithium-ion battery cells, a key technology for electric vehicles. A big contributor to China’s dominance in the cleantech sector is its low production costs. For example, it is roughly 30 percent cheaper to manufacture electrolyzers in China when compared to the U.S. and 41 percent cheaper to manufacture batteries.The cleantech race
With China currently dominating manufacturing capacities, the United States and Europe are now playing catch up in the cleantech race. To become more competitive in the global market and less dependent on China, the U.S. has implemented a range of policies and measures in recent years to scale up domestic manufacturing. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), for example, has spurred a boom in cleantech manufacturing facility announcements since it was passed into law in August 2022. Meanwhile, the European Union has set the target for the manufacturing capacity of strategic net-zero technologies to meet at least 40 percent of the region’s annual deployment needs by 2030 under the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) and increase its share of global production to 15 percent by 2040. Nevertheless, China is poised to remain the dominant force in cleantech manufacturing over the coming years, and to continue attracting the most investment for cleantech factories.Cleantech manufacturing is booming worldwide, with significant expansions in capacity and investment in recent years. This surge is expected to continue as countries look to reduce their reliance on China
