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Clean energy PE hits record $63.8 billion in Q1 2026, led by $40 billion AES buyout
PE deal value in clean energy reached a record $63.8 billion in Q1 2026, driven by the $40 billion take-private of AES Corporation by EQT, Global Infrastructure Partners, CalPERS, and the Qatar Investment Authority—one of the largest transactions recorded in the space. Even removing that single deal, the remaining $23.8 billion would rank as the second-highest quarter on record. Deal count rose to 52, above any pre-2025 quarter, suggesting a more robust recent trend rather than a short-term outlier.
Beyond AES, the quarter included several other large transactions: a $6.7 billion take-private of Canadian renewables developer Boralex, $3.9 billion in growth funding for European grid operator TenneT, and a $3.4 billion LBO of Latin American energy platform Inkia Energy. On the exit side, grid management and transmission company Forgent Power Solutions raised $7.8 billion in a February IPO, contributing to $17.8 billion in total PE exit value—the second-largest exit quarter on record. Overall tailwinds including datacenter-driven power demand, rising energy prices, and continued cost declines across renewables and storage continue to support dealmaking across the clean energy space.
Q1 2026 overtakes the previous largest quarter for PE deal activity by a considerable margin.
Table of contents
| PE activity | 3 |
| Clean energy PE ecosystem market map | 8 |
| Clean energy PE investor map | 9 |
| Q1 2026 timeline | 10 |
| Clean energy PE deal summary | 11 |
| Segment data | 12 |
| Intermittent renewables | 13 |
| Grid infrastructure | 14 |
| Dispatchable energy sources | 16 |
| Clean fuels | 17 |
| Clean energy public comparables | 18 |
| References | 19 |
