LONDON, April 20, 2026, 09:45 BST
- Global wind installations hit a record 165 gigawatts in 2025, but remain short of the pace needed for 2030 climate targets.
- Battery storage deals moved across Europe, Australia and New Zealand as grids absorb more solar and wind.
- Transport policy also shifted, with Vietnam seeking to extend electric-vehicle tax breaks and Indonesia in talks with Toyota on bioethanol.
Global wind power additions jumped to a record 165 gigawatts last year, a 40% rise from 2024, led by China, the Global Wind Energy Council said in a report released Monday. China alone accounted for 120.5 GW of new wind capacity, while total installed wind power worldwide rose to nearly 1.3 terawatts.
The number matters now because power demand is rising and governments are again looking for alternatives to volatile fossil fuel markets. Renewable power made up almost half of global electricity capacity last year, Reuters reported, while higher oil and gas prices tied to Middle East conflict have sharpened the search for domestic power sources.
But the record still falls short. The International Renewable Energy Agency has said the world needs about 320 GW of new wind capacity each year to stay on track for the global goal of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030; GWEC expects 969 GW of additions through 2030, or about 194 GW a year.
Storage was the day’s other clear thread. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it would lend 70 million euros as part of a 210 million euro financing package for Renalfa IPP vehicles developing a 450 MW solar photovoltaic, or solar-panel, portfolio with a 250 MW/1 GWh battery energy storage system in northeastern Hungary. The bank called it one of the first project-financed utility-scale hybrid renewable assets in Central and Eastern Europe.
In Germany, ILOS Projects said it had expanded a structured credit facility to 450 million euros with EIG and La Caisse to build solar and battery storage across Europe. ILOS said the facility would help it develop and operate more than 2 GW of solar and battery storage by 2028, with Ireland, Britain, Italy and Germany as core markets.
Poland also added to the storage queue. Green Capital hired Electrum to build an 80 MW/320 MWh battery energy storage system, or BESS, in Lower Silesia, with work due to start in the second quarter of 2026 and the project planned to go online in the third quarter of 2027.
Outside Europe, Pacific Energy was chosen to deliver 33.5 MW/81 MWh of battery systems for Territory Generation in Australia’s Northern Territory, across Alice Springs and Darwin-Katherine gas-fired power stations. Pacific Energy Chief Executive Mike Hall said the project was about “unlocking more solar generation for the Territory” while keeping the power system reliable. Renewables Now
New Zealand utility Genesis Energy said it reached final investment decision on the 100 MW/200 MWh second stage of its Huntly battery project. The company said the expansion would lift the site’s total battery capacity to 200 MW/400 MWh, enough to supply about 120,000 homes for two hours, at an estimated cost of about NZ$106 million.
Technology suppliers also stayed active. BloombergNEF named 12 winners of its 2026 Pioneers award, including Emerald AI, HT Materials Science and Point2 Technology in data-centre infrastructure, a growing power-load problem as artificial intelligence demand rises. Claire Curry, selection committee co-chair and global head of Technology, Industry & Innovation research at BloombergNEF, said energy technology now has to address decarbonization, rising power demand, security of supply and cost at the same time.
On the policy side, Vietnam plans to extend a special consumption-tax cut for electric vehicles to the end of 2030, its parliament office said. EV sales in the country rose from nearly 7,000 in 2022 to nearly 175,000 last year after the tax cut, Reuters reported, while Indonesia said it was in talks with Toyota Motor Asia on a possible $200 million-$300 million bioethanol plant in Lampung province.
The risks were not hard to find. RWE withdrew plans for a 99.9 MW solar-plus-storage project near Wrexham, Wales, after reviewing grid-connection availability and project viability, though the company said co-located battery projects remain central to its UK strategy. That is the blunt constraint running beneath Monday’s green-energy technology news: record buildouts and new capital do not remove permitting, grid access or project-return problems.
