Who Is Buying Solar and Storage in 2026, and at What Price

The market for selling solar and storage assets is open. Disclosed deal value is up, infrastructure funds are deploying, and new kinds of buyer have arrived. But the market has narrowed sharply. Buyers are paying for megawatts that exist or are about to, and very little for the option to build them.

Part 1 of this series set out the bottlenecks that worsened most since late 2024. This part follows them into the transaction market: who is buying, what returns they require, what each stage of asset is worth, and why more sellers are selling for liquidity rather than to bank a development gain.

Volume is up, but the mix has narrowed

Enerdatics tracked $64 billion of disclosed renewables M&A globally in the first half of 2026, up 20% on the same period of 2025, with North America accounting for about 85% of value. About four in five deals by volume targeted operating, near-COD or advanced-stage assets.

Advisers describe the same shift. KPMG reports that buyers in the first half of 2026 “paid a premium for operating and execution-ready assets” and were “less willing to underwrite development pipelines.” FTI Consulting describes 2025 valuations as favouring operating capacity over growth pipelines, a reversal of the 2021–22 market. Headline totals vary by tracker — KPMG’s narrower perimeter shows renewables deal value down year on year against an unusually strong first half of 2025 — but every source agrees on where buyers are concentrating.

Within that, storage is the growth segment on both sides of the Atlantic. Enerdatics reports U.S. battery storage M&A up about 70% year on year in the first half of 2026. In Europe, battery deals doubled to a record 69 transactions covering 18 GW, while European solar deal count fell about 15% and advanced-stage solar deals fell about 30%.

Who is buying

Required returns have moved up, and keep moving

The price of capital is the most direct link between Part 1’s higher rates and asset values. In the U.S., Nomura Greentech told a Norton Rose Fulbright panel that buyers underwrite a largely contracted solar project with a short post-PPA tail at a 7–8% levered after-tax return, and a newly built solar project valued over a 40-year life at 11–12%. Arevon’s chief executive expects investor return expectations to rise by more than another 100 basis points, on top of an earlier increase of about 100 basis points. Tax-equity flip yields for the best projects, at about 7.5–8.5%, have barely moved in two years.

European listed vehicles show the repricing most transparently, because they publish their discount rates. NextEnergy Solar Fund raised its UK solar unlevered rate from 7.5% to 8.0% and its Italian rate from 9.0% to 9.5%. Aquila European Renewables raised its rate from 7.3% to 10%, writing its unsold portfolio down by 35% and citing Iberian negative prices and curtailment. Gresham House Energy Storage Fund values its merchant UK battery fleet at a weighted average discount rate of 10.36%. RWE raised its required return on new projects from 8% to 8.5% and cut its 2025–2030 investment programme by €10 billion.

Grant Thornton’s 2026 cost-of-capital survey puts the premium for fully merchant projects at 100–300 basis points over contracted equivalents. Public markets are applying a further discount. Across the broader group of listed solar and battery storage funds, shares trade at roughly 26–52% below net asset value. Battery storage specialists and funds with Iberian solar exposure sit at the wide end, while the large diversified UK renewables funds sit nearer the low end.

What assets are worth, by stage

Spain is the clearest case of the split. The average ready-to-build solar project there fell 68% in two years, from €120,500/MWp to about €38,000/MWp, as negative prices and blocked grid capacity ate into the value of new solar. Ready-to-build batteries rose about 70% over a similar period, because storage earns from the same price volatility that is hurting solar. Grid-connected projects hybridised with batteries held their value better than standalone solar even in 2025.

Indicative only. Per-MW values for operating portfolios are Odette calculations from headline enterprise values and capacity, and deal perimeters differ. Ready-to-build benchmarks are from Enerdatics (H1 2026), Infralogic (June 2026), PF Nexus (May 2025) and pv magazine (July 2025).

The U.S. range is wide for the same reason as Europe’s split. A contracted project in a constrained, high-priced market such as New York still commands a meaningful development premium. A largely merchant project in ERCOT, where battery revenues have fallen 85% since 2023, commands very little. Late-stage U.S. value now also depends on tax-credit status: transferable credits fell 12.5% year on year in volume in the first half of 2026, to $21 billion, and trade below par.

Selling for cash, not for gains

The supply side has changed as much as demand. A growing share of assets for sale comes from owners who need liquidity, and that shows up in both price and process.

Development gains are shrinking even for strong sellers. EDP Renováveis, the most consistent asset rotator in the sector, booked €119m of rotation gains in 2025, down from €179m in 2024, at about 15% of invested capital. Contracted assets can still deliver: Grenergy expects a gain of about €75m on the €273m sale of two PPA-backed Spanish plants. The gap between those outcomes and the collapse in Spanish ready-to-build solar is the gap between selling a de-risked asset and selling an option.

What it means for sellers

Data as of October 15, 2026. Figures are from the public sources listed below; per-MW values marked as calculations are Odette estimates from disclosed deal values. Deal trackers use different perimeters and can disagree on totals. This piece is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.