12 March 2025
The future of cleantech: trends and investment opportunities
In the face of the climate change challenge, cleantech emerges as a pivotal solution and a strategic investment opportunity. These technologies, focused on sustainability and decarbonization, offer competitive advantages for businesses, driving growth and resilience.
Climate change stands as one of the foremost challenges of our time, and innovation plays a crucial role in the pursuit of solutions to curb global warming. Within this context, cleantech – technologies characterized by an innovative component and designed to promote sustainability and decarbonization – serves as a lever for transitioning towards a sustainable future, presenting investment opportunities with significant potential.
Investing in cleantech is becoming a strategic imperative for businesses. Beyond a commitment to sustainability, clean technologies offer tangible competitive advantages, such as reduced operating costs through energy efficiency, access to new revenue streams through innovation, enhanced corporate reputation among increasingly environmentally conscious customers and investors, and anticipation of future environmental regulations. Ultimately, in a constantly evolving global market, cleantech represents an opportunity to drive long-term growth, resilience, and sustainability. The key to maximizing returns lies in understanding the prevailing trends to capitalize on emerging opportunities.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Cleantech
Firstly, green hydrogen production is a prominent milestone in the renewable energy sector, poised as a promising alternative for decarbonizing sectors difficult to electrify, such as industry (primarily refineries and the chemical industry) and heavy transportation through synthetic fuels. In this regard, it is important to note that as the penetration of renewable energies increases, the need to efficiently store energy becomes fundamental. Therefore, batteries, pumped hydro storage, and other storage technologies are areas of significant investment interest.
Furthermore, cleantech will evolve towards the electrification of transportation. The rise of electric vehicles, including passenger cars, public transport, and freight transport, is driving demand for charging infrastructure and new battery technologies. Additionally, technologies for resource management efficiency will conquer both households, with the widespread adoption of home automation to optimize energy consumption and manage energy intelligently, as well as other territories and sectors, such as agriculture. Technology is an essential component for driving the transition towards a sustainable agriculture model, playing a significant role in optimizing water usage, reducing pesticide use, and improving efficiency in food production.
Finally, the future of cleantech hinges on data analytics to optimize performance and promote intelligent resource management.
Why Should Businesses Invest in Cleantech?
Cleantech represents a spectrum of investment opportunities for businesses seeking growth and profitability, opening doors to a rapidly expanding market. In fact, over the next two decades, cleantech is expected to be potentially the most significant investment cycle in history, being global and transversal to different industries.
The cleantech startup ecosystem, which is constantly evolving and growing, is a significant investment opportunity, as is the financing of projects, from the construction of renewable energy plants to the development of new storage technologies. There are also investment funds specifically dedicated to cleantech, allowing investors to diversify their portfolios and access this growing sector.
Investing in cleantech is a smart strategy for long-term business growth and resilience.
At BBVA CIB, we are at the forefront of this transformation, with the resources and capabilities to drive the growth of this key sector for a sustainable future. Our capabilities, extensive experience, and commitment to sustainability make us a strategic partner in the investment and financing of the cleantech sector, offering innovative financial solutions and supporting companies and institutions in the transition towards a sustainable and digital future.