New data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows a 19 percent reduction in solar financing in the first half of 2018, compared to the same period last year.
Continued declines in project costs, along with a policy shakeup in China, drove the drop. BNEF expects the ramifications from both to build in the second half of the year.
But where investment in solar faltered, other clean energy technologies made up the difference. Wind saw a particularly sharp 33 percent increase in investment over the first half of 2017, rising to a total of $57.2 billion. While lower relative to previous years, solar investments still outperformed wind so far this year at $71.6 billion.