FreeTender
Market analysis6 min read · Updated 14 November 2026

The energy transition in tenders: solar, grids, EV charging and storage

16,000 energy tenders analysed. India publishes 43% of them; solar is the largest clean-energy topic; EV charging, storage and hydrogen are small but rising. What the energy transition looks like in public procurement.

Headlines about the energy transition are about giant wind farms and gigawatt solar parks, which are mostly awarded through auctions. The day-to-day transition happens in ordinary public tenders: rooftop solar on schools, grid equipment, street lighting, charging points for council fleets. We analysed 16,378 energy and power tenders.

43%
of energy tenders are Indian
2,355
solar power tenders
411
EV and charging tenders, led by Germany
₹9.5 lakh
median Indian energy tender

Who buys energy

Energy and power tenders by country
Show as table
Value
India7,081
Poland1,228
Germany1,086
Ukraine593
France563
Spain325
Indonesia301
South Africa286
Saudi Arabia261
United Kingdom231
Source: FreeTender analysis · freetender.net

India’s lead comes from its many state electricity boards and power utilities (NTPC, Coal India, state distribution companies) that publish every purchase. Ukraine is the fourth-largest energy buyer in our data, ahead of France.

What is being bought

Energy tenders by category
Show as table
Value
Electrical equipment2,187
Power distribution1,667
Solar & renewables1,466
Source: FreeTender analysis · freetender.net

The clean-energy topics

Tenders mentioning each clean-energy topicMatched on notice titles across all sectors
Show as table
Value
Solar power2,355
LED street lighting1,257
EV & charging411
Hydrogen152
Battery storage141
Wind power35
Source: FreeTender analysis · freetender.net
  • Solar is the clear leader: India (509), Poland (373), Germany (204), Kenya (116) and Brazil (111).
  • EV charging is European so far: Germany (77) and Poland (69), then India (32) and France (28). It grew 53% from September to October on steady portals.
  • Storage and hydrogen are small (141 and 152 notices) but rose sharply on steady portals in October, from 27 to 43 and from 25 to 44: early signs of a market forming.
  • Wind barely registers (35), because utility-scale wind is procured through auctions rather than tenders.

How big the contracts are

The median Indian energy tender is about ₹9.5 lakh (4,636 notices with a value), small works and equipment orders well within reach of local contractors. In Europe the median is about €407,000, and in the UK about £487,000.

Browse open energy tenders, read about Indian procurement in numbers, or see all the hot topics.

How we counted. 443,107 notices that FreeTender collected from official procurement portals, development banks and UN agencies between August and mid-November 2026. Notices that an aggregator had re-published from somewhere else are left out, so nothing is counted twice. The figures describe what FreeTender collects, which is a large share of public tendering but not every notice published in the world. Clean-energy topics are matched on notice titles and English translations, across all sectors, so a solar tender classified under construction is still counted. Values are medians of declared values in each currency.

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