Why Does Poor Procurement Impact Renewable Supply Chains?

In 2024, US$496.7bn was invested in renewables, but a new report from Ansarada warns that inefficient procurement could derail global net zero ambitions.

In 2025, global investments in renewable energy infrastructure were just shy of half a trillion dollars. According to new research from infrastructure procurement platform Ansarada, investments in renewables in 2024 shot up 49% from the previous year, hitting US$496.7bn worldwide.

Europe is currently leading the charge, commanding US$202.7bn across 1,035 transactions, which represents an 82% increase in value on the previous year. Of the energy sources, offshore wind was the standout performer, with investments surging 290% to US$89.8bn. This was headlined by the financial close of the 1.4 GW East Anglia Three project off the UK's east coast, which secured a £3.6bn (US$4.8bn) debt package backed by 24 international lenders.

With the renewable energy market seemingly in such rude health, the outlook could seem rosy. Beneath the surface, however, Ansarada has found some troubling cracks in the supply chain infrastructure supporting these investments.

Supply chain bottlenecks emerge

Despite the overall value of investments skyrocketing, the study finds that the actual volume of transactions rose just 7% globally, and only 4% in Europe. The gap tells its own story: capital is concentrating into fewer, larger and more complex projects that demand rigorous supply chain coordination and auditable procurement processes.

Ansarada interviewed 150 executives about their perception of procurement in the energy sector. Just 37% of those surveyed across EMEA and the Americas described their most recent renewables procurement process as "very efficient". In Asia-Pacific, that figure drops to just 24%.

Justin Smith, Managing Director at Ansarada, is quite direct about what this could mean. "Europe has established itself as the global benchmark for renewable energy infrastructure, but there's a critical disconnect between the ambition reflected in investment figures and the procurement processes actually delivering projects," he says.

"Capital is abundant, but execution capability is the binding constraint."

Fragmented systems hampering delivery

Ansarada's report finds that around 90% of EMEA respondents described transparency and auditability as "very important" or "essential" to their procurement processes, yet nearly a third admitted those same processes lacked clarity for internal stakeholders. This is difficult to navigate, especially as sustainability mandates and ESG regulations become more stringent across the EU.

Part of the answer lies in what Ansarada calls "fragmentation" – the kind of unjoined thinking that leads to data siloing, slow tender processes and hiccups in communication across supply chains. While 91% of respondents claimed to use purpose-built procurement software, EMEA organisations were found to be running an average of 3.8 disconnected systems simultaneously.

Perhaps more alarmingly, 55% of respondents say they still rely on email to manage correspondence when it comes to sensitive bidding. Andy Potter, Business Development Director in EMEA at Ansarada, believes these approaches could be vastly improved.

"If you're still using fragmented systems or traditional cloud storage, you lose that 'golden thread' of accountability that modern regulators and investors now demand," he says.

Justin describes the result as a "Frankenstack" – a patchwork of incompatible tools that creates the illusion of digitalisation without delivering its substance. "The transparency gap isn't just an operational inefficiency; it's a commercial risk. Institutional investors and project financiers increasingly demand auditable evidence that ESG criteria are genuinely embedded in procurement."

Procurement as critical infrastructure

What seems clear from Ansarada's report is that procurement and supply chain issues in renewable energy will have to be ironed out to meet skyrocketing demand. Analysis from Bain & Co cited in the report suggests global compute requirements alone could reach 200 GW by 2030, driven by AI infrastructure. This will make reliable green energy an industrial necessity rather than a nice-to-have climate ambition.

Energy sector insiders understand this. Speaking about geopolitical impacts on the UK's energy landscape, Christophe Williams, Chief Executive of Naked Energy, says: "Tackling heat with British and European made clean technologies is one of the fastest ways to lower exposure to gas prices while strengthening energy security."

But ambition and delivery are two very different things.

As Justin puts it: "The question for Europe is whether procurement processes can match the scale of ambition reflected in investment figures. Capital is flowing toward large-scale and integrated projects, but delivery depends on treating procurement as critical project infrastructure from day one, not an administrative afterthought."