Renewable power infrastructure: The backbone of the power system

Renewable power infrastructure is becoming core infrastructure because rising electricity demand makes integrated systems combining generation, storage, grid access and contracting more valuable than standalone megawatts.

• Global electricity demand is being driven by AI and data centers, industrial electrification, manufacturing, transportation, cooling and economic growth, while transmission constraints and interconnection queues make speed to market and delivery certainty increasingly important.
• By 2024, more than 90% of newly commissioned renewable projects generated electricity at a lower cost than the cheapest new fossil-fuel alternative; in 2025, clean power met all global electricity demand growth, with solar accounting for about 75% of incremental expansion.
• Utilities and businesses are increasingly contracting for integrated systems: two hybrid power purchase agreements totaling 920 MW were signed across Australia and Canada, combining generation and storage to better match customer needs.
• Hydro provides scarce, dispatchable clean power and can offer multiday storage; long-term studies across parts of Brookfield's portfolio indicated expected generation increases of approximately 3–8% in some locations because of higher precipitation, although water availability and head pressure remain asset-specific risks.
• Battery costs have fallen by nearly 95% since 2010 and by more than 60% over the past two years; in 2025, roughly one quarter of utility-scale solar projects commissioned globally were co-located with battery storage.

Takeaway: Investors should focus on scaled platforms with scarce grid access, contracted revenues, strong counterparties and execution capabilities, while underwriting congestion, permitting, supply-chain, regulatory, degradation and replacement-capital risks.