Investment in wind powerIs it still worth investing in wind power in 2026?

Investing in wind power: What is the current situation?

Wind is on the up: Worldwide, the numbers of wind turbines and investments in this form of renewable energy are increasing. In 2023, global investments in offshore wind power reached a new record at USD 76.7 billion - an increase of 79% compared to the previous year.³ Wind power was the most important energy source in Germany in 2024, with a share of 33% of public net electricity generation, well ahead of coal and gas. Wind power has thus replaced coal as Germany’s most important energy source.⁴

Germany built the most new wind turbines in Europe in the first half of 2025, accounting for almost a third of the total European wind energy expansion.⁵

Unfortunately, investors have also had negative experiences with “windy” providers in the past. Many investment offers lack a minimum degree of transparency. Which securities and projects are invested in exactly? How is a return forecast made? Which questions can be used to thoroughly check for safety or risk?

Investment in wind power: 8 important questions - and answers

There are plenty of reasons for investors to deal with the boom and see how their own portfolio can benefit from it. Therefore, the following questions are intended to shed light on the most important aspects of investing in wind power. 

1. Is wind power only for experienced investors?

No. It is also possible to invest in wind power without previous experience - the decisive factor is not specialist knowledge, but careful examination of the offer and the critical question of whether this form of installation suits your own life situation and risk appetite. Institutional investors such as insurance companies and banks have been benefiting from the expansion of renewable energies for some time now. However, new products - above all the ELTIF since Reform 2.0 - are now also opening up this asset class to private investors.

In principle, retail investors can also participate in projects today, often from an investment amount of 100 euros.⁷ You should pay attention to how long your money will be tied up (investment period), what fees and expenses are associated with the project (cost transparency) and what experience operators and financial managers can demonstrate with wind projects (provider quality).

The form of investment is also decisive for the risk-return profile of a wind power investment. There is a wide range here, from equities and bonds to closed and open-ended funds to civic wind farms and other forms of crowdinvesting.⁸ 

2. What environmental benefits does wind power have?

To “harvest” wind, no fossil fuels such as coal, gas or oil are needed. Wind energy is therefore one of the renewable energies contributing to protecting the climate: Generating electricity from wind generates fewer climate-damaging greenhouse gases such as CO₂ than generating electricity from non-renewable energy sources such as coal, gas or oil.⁹ 

In Germany alone, wind power production saved almost 108 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2023.¹⁰ This means that Europe can cover a growing part of its demand: In 2024, wind turbines already covered 19% (475 TWh) of the EU’s electricity consumption.¹¹However, the annual expansion of 16 GW is still well below the 30 GW required to achieve the EU’s 2030 climate targets.¹²

3. What are the benefits of a wind farm investment for investors?

Several properties make wind power a stand-alone component in the portfolio:

• Tangible assets with current cash flow: Wind turbines fall under the heading of investments in tangible assets - behind the investment is a steel wind turbine that continuously produces electricity and generates income. They remain stable even in crises and counteract inflation.
• Largely independent of the stock exchange: The revenue of a wind farm depends on how much electricity it produces and at what price it sells it. They follow a different logic to share prices and hardly react to stock market fluctuations. In a custody account that is otherwise heavily dominated by equities and bonds, wind power has such a balancing effect.
• Plannable returns through a structured revenue mix: Stable income that can be calculated over years is one of the greatest strengths of a wind power investment. However, the time when a single government guarantee provided this predictability is coming to an end. “Where guaranteed revenues used to attract, spot market prices, weather data and network capacities now determine the revenue side,” says Timo Werner, fund manager of klimaVest.¹³ Plannability therefore arises today via a structured revenue mix, the focus of which is on long-term power purchase agreements with large customers with high credit ratings. Cleverly combined, this mix compensates for individual fluctuations and keeps yields predictable over long periods of time.
• Structural growth market: The forecast expansion of wind power capacities ensures that interested parties find an attractive market for these investments. WindEurope expects a total of 187 GW of new wind power to be installed in Europe between 2025 and 2030.¹⁴ At the same time, the investment volumes for wind farms are usually so large that the costs for planning, sales and operation are well distributed and enable interesting returns.
• Measurable contribution to the energy transition: With an investment in wind power, private investors can actively promote climate change mitigation¹⁵ and benefit from the returns: Generating electricity from wind generates fewer climate-damaging greenhouse gases such as CO₂ than generating electricity from non-renewable energy sources such as coal, gas or oil.⁹ Every euro that goes into a wind farm finances a specific plant that would otherwise not be built. 

4. How much return can an investment in wind energy generate?

The return depends heavily on the type of investment. Direct wind investments and closed-end funds aim for an annual return of 4% to 6%, and in individual cases up to 9% - but with significantly higher risk and long maturities of 10 to 20 years. Open-ended funds such as klimaVest typically offer a target return of 3.5% to 4.5% with greater security through broad diversification across many wind farms, countries and technologies. Wind power stocks are more volatile and dependent on stock market movements. Following the 2023 crash, some stocks such as Siemens Energy 2024 have recovered, but long-term returns remain difficult to predict.¹⁶

Important remark: The real yields depend on wind volumes, electricity prices, operating costs and political framework conditions. The guaranteed feed-in tariff over 20 years (EEG) offers planning security, but expires for old systems. Modern wind farms are increasingly relying on power purchase agreements (PPAs) or direct marketing on the stock exchange, with opportunities for higher profits, but also greater fluctuations. The basic rule is: The higher the promised return, the higher the risk. Reputable providers with a long-standing track record and transparent cost structure are decisive for actual returns.¹⁷

5. How safe or risky is an investment in wind power?

Wind power investments are relatively safe: The combination of political support, mature technology and rising global energy demand enables predictable returns at moderate risk - provided the investment is professionally diversified. The following factors support this assessment: Global energy demand is increasing due to population growth, rising incomes and urbanisation, especially in emerging and developing countries.¹⁸ International agreements and national laws such as the German EEG promote renewable energies with legally secured remunerations. The technology is mature and proven, and yields are easy to calculate.

At the same time, there are investment risks: Wind remains unpredictable despite careful forecasts; longer downturns can reduce yields. In the early 2000s, inexperienced project planners had based their wind forecasts on the above-average wind speeds of the 1990s.¹⁹ Management errors in the location or altitude calculation can jeopardise profitability. In the worst case, large losses of revenue could lead to the project becoming insolvent. Political changes to the funding conditions are also theoretically possible. In Germany, however, plant operators enjoy guaranteed protection of trust under constitutional law - retroactive reductions in EEG remuneration for existing plants are not permitted.²⁰

Risk minimisation through professional diversification : In order to reduce risks, it is advisable to invest in more than one wind farm. However, several direct investments require considerable know-how, time and capital. Open-ended tangible assets funds offer the better solution: They systematically spread the capital across many wind farms, countries and technologies. The klimaVest fund, for example, is diversified over 45 assets across Europe, in Finland, Spain, Germany, France, Ireland and Sweden. The portfolio includes onshore wind farms, solar farms and a participation in transmission grids. The risks are spread geographically, technologically and across different operators. This means that you will not experience a proverbial storm when the wind fails to blow in a particular region. 

6. What is the term of a wind power investment? 

Wind turbines belong to the class of infrastructure assets. This makes them less susceptible to cyclical fluctuations and more independent of stock market movements. At the same time, these types of investments tie up investors’ capital in the longer term and

investors should expect their capital to be tied up for several years. The specific duration depends on the project in question, and in some cases it is less than five years. This is because the initial investments for a wind farm are only reinvested over the years with the income from the sale of electricity or through the feed-in tariff.

At the latest after the end of the statutory promotional period of 20 years, a "repowering"takes place, the modernisation of old plants. New wind turbines – with improved performance and less maintenance – replace the old turbines. Operators do not have to make any initial efforts, as grid connections, permits and experience with wind power are already in place. 

7. What trends are shaping the future of wind energy?

The future of wind power is driven by three trends: repowering, hybridisation and offshore expansion. klimaVest is focusing on these developments.

What does repowering mean for wind turbines?

In the future, it will be more about the topic of repowering. This is mainly due to the lack of location. "The most profitable locations possible are already built with the appropriate systems. Proximity rules to inhabited areas, nature conservation regulations and local resistance also make it difficult to find a location," explains Dr Nicole Arnold, Member of the Management Board of Commerz Real.² At the same time, many plants from the early days of the EEG are reaching the end of their around 20-year life cycle. “That’s why it’s time for repowering, i.e. replacing it with newer systems that are about three times more powerful on average than the old ones,” says Arnold.

Repowering is about modernising renewable energy systems and making them more efficiently usable. This approach offers the benefit that the site already exists and is infrastructurally prepared for the operation of a renewable energy plant such as a wind farm. On the one hand, repowering makes it easier to connect to the grid, and on the other hand, such projects can usually be approved more quickly. Repowering is therefore a valuable approach to refurbishing renewable energy systems as easily as possible and using them as efficiently and profitably as possible.

Why hybrid systems are the future

The focus is on hybridization, i.e. the combination of different technologies: This involves combining different technologies for electricity production, such as wind and solar power. On the other hand, production and storage technologies are also to be hybridised so that produced electricity can be stored and fed into the grid at a different time. The introduction and implementation of such hybrid plants ensures that natural fluctuations in electricity production can be better compensated for. klimaVest has also recognised the potential of this model and has already acquired a Spanish solar farm for its portfolio, which will be supplemented by a wind farm in the coming years. Hybrid models that combine different methods of electricity production and storage will gain considerable popularity in the coming years.

What role does offshore wind play?

The third theme focuses on future challenges in the field of wind power investments, namely offshore wind farms. The rising costs and disrupted supply chains that have burdened the economy in recent years have been particularly evident here. Due to the installation in open water, the manufacturing and installation costs are already higher than for onshore wind turbines, and the more extreme weather conditions also cause higher wear.²¹

At the same time, however, the yields are almost twice as high as for wind farms on the mainland.²² The more plants are built, the more costs could be reduced in the long term. However, in order to exploit this potential, the expansion must also be driven forward accordingly in the coming years. 

8. How to invest in wind power? Overview of forms of investments

There are five ways for private investors to invest in wind power. Each form of investment differs in terms of risk, minimum investment, term and right to have a say: 

To sum up: Is it worth investing in wind power in 2026?

Yes, investing in wind power can pay off: It is a stand-alone asset class with predictable returns and a target return of 3.5 to 9%, depending on the investment form. It stabilises the portfolio through its tangible value character and low dependence on the stock market. The contribution to the energy transition through lower CO₂ emissions compared to fossil fuels is added as an effect. If this effect is negligible, wind power can nevertheless make sense to supplement the portfolio.

The key takeaway: Risk and return depend decisively on the form of investment. Direct investments promise higher returns (up to 9%)¹, but require high capital, long-term capital tie-up and the willingness to bear project risks. Open-ended funds such as klimaVest offer moderate returns of 3.5-4.5% with significantly higher security through professional diversification across countries, technologies and operators.

Who should invest? Wind power is suitable for investors with a medium-term investment horizon (5+ years) who value material value stability and inflation protection. Long-term electricity purchase agreements, rising electricity prices and ambitious EU climate targets speak for long-term stable framework conditions.²⁴

Next stages: Decide which form of investment suits your risk appetite. More flexibility or higher return? Broad diversification or targeted project selection? Our comparison of investment forms helps you make the right decision.