Carbon Collective Blog - Thoughts on being part of the climate solution.

Best solar stocks ranked by historical performance

Written by Zach Stein | Oct 3, 2020 8:03:00 AM

Checkout our list of the best solar stocks on the New York Stock Exchange over the past five years. We ranked them from highest to lowest.

At Carbon Collective, we’ve been on a mission to build the most diversified, climate-friendly investment portfolios possible. In the process, we’ve cataloged all of the publicly traded companies building climate solutions, including solar.

If you want to explore more zero carbon energy stocks beyond solar, check out our Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Stocks.

Disclaimer: We’re publishing the following purely for informational purposes and not a recommendation to buy or sell. All historical return data was taken on 09/03/20. We’ll be updating it regularly.

  • COMPANY
  • TICKER
  • % CHANGE (3-YR)
  • % CHANGE (5-YR)
  • DESCRIPTION
 
 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+1758.38 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+1642.53 %

Enphase makes micro inverters that help solar systems integrate with the grid and electrical storage systems

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+716.04 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+767.10 %

SolarEdge makes solar inverters plus monitoring software that help solar panels run more efficiently

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+322.95 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+714.19 %

DAQO is a large Chinese manufacturer of silicon solar wafers. We need to generate at least 30% of our energy from solar. While growing fast, its only at 2% globally

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+743.06 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+392.45 %

Sunrun has installed solar panels in over 285,000 homes in the US and continues to grow.

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+2.53 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+214.87 %

Advanced Energy makes power supplies and other components that are used in solar panel manufacturing.

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+118.84 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+201.87 %

Hannon is a "Yieldco." It pools investment to buy renewable energy plants and return regular dividends. They own 2.3+ GWs of production (~1.5m US households of electricity)

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+89.97 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+180.09 %

BEP is a "Yieldco." It pools investment to buy renewable energy plants and return regular dividends. BEPC owns 16+ GWs of production (~10.4m US households of electricity) globally

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+523.20 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+150.68 %

Vivint has installed home solar in over 190,000 homes in the US

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+58.56 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+149.09 %

NEP is a "Yieldco." It pools investment to buy renewable energy plants and return regular dividends. NEP owns 5.3+ GWs of production (~3.4m US households of electricity)

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+50.89 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+102.98 %

Clearway is a "Yieldco." It pools investment to buy renewable energy plants and return regular dividends. Clearway owns 4.3+ GWs of production (~2.8m US households of electricity).

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+108.01 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+81.81 %

Canadian Solar shipped more than 46 GW of solar panels (~30M US homes of electricity). Their latest panel broke records for energy conversion from the sun.

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+74.22 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+78.09 %

AY is a "Yieldco." It pools investment to buy renewable energy plants and return regular dividends. AY owns 1.5+ GWs (~975k US households of electricity) of production globally

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+61.89 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+61.49 %

First solar is a solar panel manufacturer, installer, and operator with 20 GW of panels (~13M US homes of electricity) shipped

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
-19.64 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+16.64 %

JinkoSolar is a large Chinese manufacturer of solar panels having delivered 55.4GW of panels (= ~36M US homes electricity usage)

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+63.32 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
+0.00 %

Azure Power is the largest Indian utility scale solar developer. To date they have deployed 2 GWs (~1.3m US homes-worth) with a pipeline of 5 GWs more

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+103.81 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
-19.81 %

Sunpower builds and designs innovative solar panels. We need to generate at least 30% of our energy from solar. While growing fast, it's only at 2% globally.

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
+60.58 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
-63.65 %

Sky Solar develops and operates a portfolio of 135 MW of solar around the world (~ 88,000 US home's worth) with a pipeline of an additional 500 MW.

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
-27.95 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
-70.24 %

Renesola develops and operates a portfolio of 745 MW of solar around the world (~ 484,000 US home's worth) with a pipeline of an additional 1.1 GW.

 
% CHANGE (3-YR)
-93.93 %
% CHANGE (5-YR)
-96.89 %

Sunworks installs solar in homes, business, and with utilities. They have installed 162 megawatts to date (equivalent to ~105,000 average US homes)

About Carbon Collective:

We built Carbon Collective because we couldn’t find anywhere to invest our retirement savings that made both ethical and financial sense in the age of climate change. 

So we put together the world’s first series of climate-friendly, diversified, low-fee investment portfolios and teamed up with a world-class online brokerage platform to automatically manage them.

Picture an index fund in a world without fossil fuels. That’s how we build our portfolios. We replace the high-carbon parts of the stock market (fossil fuels, dirty utilities, airlines, etc.) with the companies building solutions to climate change (renewable energy, circular economy, energy efficiency, etc.). 

Check out their historical performance, carbon footprint, and fees compared to common standard and ethical portfolios.