We recently published a list of the 10 Best Clean Energy Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) stands against other top clean energy stocks according to billionaires.
The current overall bearish trend has also dealt a massive blow to the energy sector, which fell by more than 15.7% over the last five days, against a decline of less than 10% by the overall market. This is despite the fact that energy commodities were exempted from President Trump’s sweeping new tariffs – a clear tactic to keep energy inflation in check and in-line with his broader aim to keep energy prices low. The biggest reason for this is the prevailing anxiety about what these tariffs will do to economic growth and, hence, the power demand. The decline in energy stocks also indicates that the market is not expecting any reindustrialization of America to happen in the near term, which appears to be the President’s key aim behind his upending of the entire global trade system.
READ ALSO: 12 Best Nuclear Power Stocks To Buy Now
That said, the global renewable energy industry is growing at a record pace as the world moves ahead with its energy transition to mitigate the impacts of climate change. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the global renewable power capacity reached 4,448 gigawatts (GW) in 2024, with an addition of 585 GW just last year. This represented a 92.5% share of the total capacity expansion during the year and marked a record 15.1% rate of annual growth.
The American clean energy sector has kept up with this explosive growth and brought online 48.2 GW of capacity from utility-scale solar, wind, and battery storage in 2024, according to research organization Cleanview. Renewables are set to continue this momentum, and the US Energy Information Administration expects the share of new power capacity to come online this year from renewables and batteries to jump to 93%.
One sector that has particularly garnered accelerated investor interest over the last year is nuclear energy. The International Energy Agency recently revealed that nuclear is set to generate a record level of electricity in 2025. Moreover, on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference in Houston last month, several major corporations even signed a pledge to support the goal of at least tripling the world’s nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
Another sector that has performed exceptionally well is that of energy storage, which set a new record with 12.3 GW of installations across all segments in the US last year. According to the American Clean Power Association, the industry is on a path to surpass 100 GW of grid-scale storage deployed by 2030. However, the country’s rapidly expanding sector now faces a serious threat since over 90% of lithium-ion energy storage cells deployed in the US storage market last year originated from China, according to Rho Motion, a data research company.
Despite the Trump administration’s best efforts to hamper its growth, the clean energy sector continues to be backed up by an increasing number of hedge funds and billionaires. A great example is how Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has invested over $40 billion in wind, solar, and hydroelectric projects and operates one of the largest renewable energy portfolios in America.
A field of solar panels glistening in the afternoon sun, symbolizing the company’s renewable energy ambitions.
Our Methodology
To collect data for this article, we scanned Insider Monkey’s database of billionaires’ stock holdings and picked the top 10 companies operating in the renewable energy sector with the highest number of billionaire investors in the Insider Monkey database in Q4 of 2024. When two or more companies had the same number of billionaires backing them, we ranked them by the revenue of their last financial year. Following are the Best Clean Energy Stocks According to Billionaires.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN)
Number of Billionaire Investors: 9
A home solar panel and battery storage company, Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) is America’s leading provider of clean energy as a subscription service. The company announced last summer that it is the first and only storage-plus-solar company to surpass 1 million customers, firmly establishing its position as the largest developer of residential clean energy systems in the US.
Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) reported an adjusted EPS of $1.41 in Q4 2024, far above the market expectations by $1.6. However, the company’s revenue of $518.5 million fell below estimates by $22.56 million. Sunrun grew its customer base by 12% during the quarter and also hit all-time highs for storage attachment rates and capacity installed. The company generated $34 million in cash in Q4 and paid down $132 million of recourse debt with excess cash.
Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) continues to expand its position in the energy storage industry and expects its installed storage capacity to be in a range of 265-275 megawatt hours in the first quarter of 2025, representing approximately 30% growth YoY at the midpoint. Moreover, the company aims to further bolster its balance sheet with expected cash generation to be in a range of $200 to $500 million, with a target to further pay down $100 million or more in recourse debt during the year.
Overall, RUN ranks 5th on our list of the best clean energy stocks to buy according to billionaires. While we acknowledge the potential of renewable energy stocks , our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than RUN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
