Renewables investors are pulling back from the U.S.

Driving the news: The first half of 2025 saw the "reallocation" of investment dollars away from the U.S. begin, the research firm BloombergNEF found.

• U.S. spending fell by $20.5 billion, or 36%, from the second half of 2024 in what the firm calls a response to the U.S. presidential election.
• It was the steepest drop of any country.

"There was a rush to construct toward the end of last year as developers sought to lock in access to tax credits, and then a sharp drop in the first half of this year due to worsening policy conditions, particularly for wind, and growing tariff uncertainty," the report states.

The intrigue: The European Union saw a big jump, which "supports the idea that developers and investors may be reallocating capital out of the U.S. and into Europe."

Stunning stat: The U.S., in the first half of 2025, wasn't among the world's top-five wind markets for the first time since 2016.

The big picture: Worldwide investment was $386 billion in the first half of 2025, a tally that's largely wind and solar, but also includes biofuels, geothermal and more.

• The solar picture is split, with spending on small-scale projects up, "reflecting cheap modules and the ease of siting" these assets.

• But financing for big, or utility-scale, projects fell sharply "amid concerns over revenue risk."
• "[M]any of the markets that saw the largest year-on-year declines in investment — including mainland China, Spain, Greece, and Brazil — have seen rising curtailment, greater exposure to negative power prices, or both."

What we're watching: How recent events sway U.S. investment trends.

• The Interior Department has unveiled fresh constraints on wind and solar projects, while the Commerce Department could impose new tariffs on wind blades and components.
• And just last week, Interior demanded that Ørsted halt construction on a big, nearly complete wind project off Rhode Island.

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