Renewable energy stocks have crashed spectacularly over the past three years. Once Wall Street darlings, solar companies like SunPower went bankrupt while others lost 80% of their value. Wind energy wasn’t spared either—industry leaders Vestas and Orsted plummeted by 65-70%. Meanwhile, energy storage and EV stocks collapsed by a brutal 90-95%. Rising interest rates, supply chain issues, and diminishing subsidies hammered the final nails in green energy’s coffin. The traditional energy sector, ironically, remained standing.
A bloodbath. That’s the only way to describe what’s happened to renewable energy stocks over the past three years. Once the darlings of Wall Street, these green investments have crashed back to earth with a thud that’s left investors shell-shocked and portfolios bleeding red.
A green dream turned financial nightmare as eco-friendly stocks crash and burn, leaving investors bleeding red.
Solar stocks? Decimated. SunPower filed for bankruptcy in August 2024, while others like SolarEdge Technologies and Enphase Energy have seen their values plummet by more than 80% from their peaks. Complete Solaria has dropped 81% since its SPAC merger, joining the parade of green energy failures.
Wind energy hasn’t fared any better. Vestas Wind Systems is down 65% from its 2021 high. Nordex SE dropped 80%. TPI Composites? A staggering 95% collapse. Offshore wind darling Orsted has watched 70% of its value vanish into thin air. The wind industry, it turns out, isn’t a breeze for investors. This market decline mirrors the environmental challenges of the Industrial Revolution, when coal smoke pollution created health crises in rapidly industrializing cities.
Energy storage stocks, once hyped as the solution to renewable intermittency, crashed spectacularly. QuantumScape is down 95%. ESS Tech and Eos Energy both lost over 95% of their value. So much for storing all that investor cash, right?
Electric vehicle makers drove straight into a ditch. Rivian, Lucid, and Nikola all lost 90% or more from their peaks. Lordstown Motors and Fisker both crashed and burned, with Lordstown filing for bankruptcy in 2024. They promised the future of transportation. They delivered financial carnage instead.
The hydrogen revolution? More like revolution back to penny stock territory. Plug Power, Ballard, FuelCell Energy – all down over 90%.
What happened? A perfect storm. Rising interest rates made financing new projects prohibitively expensive. Supply chains broke. Material costs soared. Government subsidies dried up. Competition intensified. Margins compressed to nothing. Meanwhile, traditional energy companies like Phillips 66 have shown resilience with 30-day returns of 7.7% as of February 2025. The solar sector’s dramatic stock price volatility stems from market mania and speculation that artificially inflated valuations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clean energy ETFs tell the grim tale: iShares Global Clean Energy ETF down 70%. Invesco Solar ETF down 75%.
The green energy revolution isn’t dead. But its stock market bubble sure is.
