Executive Summary: Maturity Levels in the Cleantech Sector – A Strategic Path to Sustainability

The cleantech sector is progressing rapidly but unevenly, with some technologies already commercialised and others still in early development. As the global push for decarbonisation intensifies, understanding the varying maturity levels across the cleantech landscape is critical for prioritising investment and policy support.

While technologies such as solar and wind power are well-established and widely deployed, others—like green hydrogen, carbon capture, and next-generation battery storage—are still in development or early deployment stages. Accelerating the maturity of these emerging technologies will be vital to meeting international climate goals, particularly those set out in the Paris Agreement.

Cleantech spans multiple industries, including energy, agriculture, transportation, materials, and digital technologies. Traditional industry classifications, however, don’t fully capture the readiness or commercial potential of the solutions. A more effective framework groups technologies by maturity: advanced, medium, or low.

At the advanced maturity level, solar and wind are already reshaping global energy production, with renewables now accounting for over 30% of electricity generation. Battery storage is also gaining ground, with more than 28 GW of capacity installed globally and projections exceeding 1,000 GW by 2030. Electric vehicles, offshore wind, and geothermal energy also fall within this mature category, with growing adoption worldwide.

Technologies at medium maturity—such as tidal and wave energy, small modular nuclear reactors, and green hydrogen—are progressing from pilot projects to early commercialisation. While not yet scaled, they hold significant long-term promise. For example, global hydrogen production is expected to reach 38 million tons by 2030, driven by strong development activity across major economies.

Low-maturity solutions, including carbon capture and storage (CCS), green steel, alternative aviation fuels, and next-generation batteries like solid-state and molten salt designs, remain largely experimental. Many of these depend on the successful scaling of other cleantech infrastructure—particularly renewable energy and hydrogen—to become viable.

Strategic investment and coordinated policy are essential to bring these lower-maturity technologies to scale. As noted by industry experts, transformative cleantech solutions must address systemic challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, industrial decarbonization, and energy security, while contributing to a circular and resilient economy.

To remain on track for a net-zero future, emissions reductions must accelerate by a factor of twelve. Cleantech is central not only to climate action but also to long-term global competitiveness. Supporting a diverse, innovation-driven cleantech ecosystem will be key to securing both environmental and economic resilience in the coming decades.