Clean energy ETF alternative to build your own clean energy stocks index and backtest it against ICLN and TAN
One popular clean energy fund is more than half chip makers and car companies, another holds electric aircraft and quantum computing stocks, and the biggest one counts a Chinese hydro utility as its second largest holding. Pick the solar, wind, hydrogen and developer companies you actually want, set the weights, and see how the basket would have done next to the funds and the S&P 500. Then buy it at your own broker.
Pick 2 to 10 holdings. Stocks, ETFs and crypto mix in one index.
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In short
A clean energy ETF alternative is a basket of clean energy stocks you weight yourself instead of taking a fund's rule. It matters because clean energy funds own very different things. Summing every holding, solar, wind, hydrogen and renewable developers made up 100% of Invesco's TAN (May 31, 2026), 72.0% of iShares' ICLN (July 31) and 67.7% of Fidelity's FRNW (June 30), but only 37.4% of First Trust's QCLN, which was 53.6% chips, electric vehicles and lithium on October 13, and 27.7% of Invesco's PBW. Building your own clean energy stocks index means choosing that mix, backtesting it, and buying the stocks at a broker with no expense ratio.
Summed from each fund's published holdings and SEC filings
How much of each clean energy ETF is actually solar, wind and hydrogen?
Every holding sorted by what the company mainly sells. Black is pure clean energy: solar makers and installers, wind turbine makers, fuel cells and hydrogen, and the developers and yieldcos that own solar and wind farms. Grey is regulated and diversified utilities. Green is electric vehicles, batteries, lithium and semiconductors. Amber is everything else, from grid equipment to biofuels.
Invesco TAN
100% clean
All solar, but a third is solar farm developers and 19.6% is Israeli developers (May 31)
iShares ICLN
72% clean
Its second largest holding was China Yangtze Power, a hydro utility (July 31)
Fidelity FRNW
67.7% clean
GE Vernova was its largest holding and 63% sat outside the US (June 30)
First Trust FAN
65.7% clean
A wind fund that is 87% foreign: Denmark, Germany, Spain and China lead
ALPS ACES
55.9% clean
Tesla 5.6%, plus Darling Ingredients, a rendering and biofuel company
SPDR CNRG
43.8% clean
Constellation, NextEra and AES make it part utility fund
First Trust QCLN
37.4% clean
30.5% chips and 23.2% electric vehicles, batteries and lithium, and no wind maker
Invesco PBW
27.7% clean
Electric aircraft and quantum computing stocks were 7.3% of it (July 31)
Start with QCLN, because it surprises people most. It holds only US listings, which sounds like a plus, but the US clean energy companies large enough to make its index include a lot of chip makers and car companies. On October 13 its largest holding was Bloom Energy at 10.6%, followed by Monolithic Power at 8.6%, ON Semiconductor at 8.6%, Tesla at 8.4% and Rivian at 6.2%. Semiconductors were 30.5% of the fund and electric vehicles, batteries and lithium another 23.2%. It held no wind turbine maker at all. If you already own an S&P 500 fund, 42.9% of QCLN's money sat in companies you hold there too.
PBW goes further in a different direction. It spreads its money over about 72 mostly small companies at similar weights, so no stock passed 2.4%, and the list is wide. In its July 31 filing the top ten opened with OPAL Fuels, a renewable natural gas producer, and BETA Technologies, an electric aircraft maker. Archer and Joby, two more electric aircraft companies, and D-Wave and IonQ, two quantum computing companies, added up to 7.3% with BETA. Only 27.7% of PBW was solar, wind, hydrogen or renewable developers.
ICLN, the biggest fund at $2.3 billion, is closer to what most people picture, with one large exception. A quarter of it, 25.3%, sat in utilities in July: China Yangtze Power at 7.8% was its second largest holding, and Brazilian power distributors such as Equatorial, Energisa and CPFL, Portugal's EDP and Japan's Chubu Electric followed. TAN is the purest of the eight because its index takes only solar, but a third of it is solar farm developers rather than equipment makers, and 19.6% sat in four Israeli developers in May.
From each issuer's fund page, holdings file, prospectus and SEC filings
Which clean energy ETF holds what, and how does each one pick its stocks?
| Fund | Expense ratio | Holdings | Assets | Rule | Largest positions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iShares Global Clean Energy (ICLN) | 0.38% | 104 | $2.3 billion (July 31) | S&P Global Clean Energy Transition Index, developed and emerging market clean power producers and equipment makers | First Solar 8.1%, China Yangtze Power 7.8%, Nextpower 7.0%, Bloom Energy 6.9%, Enphase 4.6% (July 31 filing) |
| Fidelity Clean Energy (FRNW) | 0.39% | 50 | $154 million (June 30) | Fidelity Clean Energy Index, global, companies ranked by solar, wind and hydrogen revenue and a text score | GE Vernova 6.0%, Vestas 4.7%, Bloom Energy 4.5%, EDP 3.7%, First Solar 3.7% (June 30 filing) |
| SPDR S&P Kensho Clean Power (CNRG) | 0.45% | 39 | $174 million | S&P Kensho Clean Power Index, US-listed shares of clean power companies worldwide, picked by text classification | Constellation 4.3%, Arcosa 4.3%, GE Vernova 4.1%, Cemig 4.1%, Bloom Energy 4.0% |
| ALPS Clean Energy (ACES) | 0.55% | 37 | $93 million | CIBC Atlas Clean Energy Index, US and Canadian companies only, adjusted market cap | Northland Power 5.9%, Nextpower 5.7%, Tesla 5.6%, Darling Ingredients 5.5%, Clearway 5.4% |
| First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy (QCLN) | 0.59% | 57 | $527 million | NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index, US-listed, modified market cap | Bloom Energy 10.6%, Monolithic Power 8.6%, ON Semiconductor 8.6%, Tesla 8.4%, Rivian 6.2% |
| First Trust Global Wind Energy (FAN) | 0.60% | 46 | $193 million | ISE Clean Edge Global Wind Energy Index, wind turbine makers, parts suppliers and wind farm owners | Orsted 7.9%, Nordex 7.8%, EDP Renovaveis 7.5%, Vestas 7.3%, China Longyuan 5.7% |
| Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy (PBW) | 0.63% | 72 | $420 million (July 31) | WilderHill Clean Energy Index, many small companies at similar weights | OPAL Fuels 2.4%, BETA Technologies 2.2%, Itron 2.1%, Gentherm 2.1%, Darling Ingredients 2.0% (July 31 filing) |
| Invesco Solar (TAN) | 0.70% | 31 | $2.3 billion (May 31) | MAC Global Solar Energy Index, solar makers, installers and solar developers only | First Solar 11.7%, Nextpower 9.8%, Enphase 8.8%, Enlight 7.6%, SolarEdge 6.3% (May 31 filing) |
Clean energy stocks fell hard between the middle of the year and October. QCLN's assets dropped from $837 million in its June 30 filing to $527 million on October 13, and CNRG, FAN and ACES shrank by a third as well. The ICLN, PBW, FRNW and TAN figures come from SEC filings dated May 31 to July 31 because the iShares, Invesco and Fidelity websites could not be read for this comparison, so their weights have drifted since. Treat them as the shape of each fund, not today's exact numbers.
Nuclear power is left out on purpose: of the eight funds, only FRNW held a reactor operator, CGN Power at 1.7%. If nuclear is part of your clean energy view, the nuclear energy ETF alternative page splits the nuclear and uranium funds into miners and reactor companies. Leveraged clean energy funds reset every day and are built for trading rather than holding, so they are not compared here.
// The universe, six groups
Which stocks belong in a clean energy stocks index?
Clean energy companies earn from different things. Panel, tracker and inverter makers sell hardware and live on order books, interest rates and tariffs. Developers and yieldcos own solar and wind farms and collect power contracts for decades, so they trade more like income stocks. Fuel cell makers are the most speculative group and the most volatile. The share you give each group decides what your index actually rides on.
1
Solar panels, trackers and inverters
2
Wind and grid equipment
3
Fuel cells and hydrogen
4
Renewable developers and yieldcos
5
Rooftop solar and services
6
Utilities with big renewable fleets (optional sleeve)
That second chart is the decision a US buyer faces first. The wind makers are mostly European and Chinese: Vestas, Nordex, Siemens Energy, Goldwind and the big wind farm owners such as Orsted and EDP Renovaveis trade in Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Lisbon and Hong Kong, which is why FAN was 87.1% foreign and ICLN 61.7%, with 22.0% in China. A basket of US listings can hold First Solar, Nextpower, Enphase, Array, Shoals, Bloom, Plug, Brookfield Renewable, Clearway, Ormat and GE Vernova, which covers solar, fuel cells, developers and wind equipment, but it cannot hold the European turbine makers directly. Decide whether you want that gap or want a fund to fill it.
The S&P 500 overlap is small for most of these funds, because few clean energy companies are in the index. First Solar, Bloom Energy, GE Vernova, NextEra, Constellation and AES are; Enphase, SolarEdge, Sunrun, Plug Power and Rivian are not. Weighting is the next decision. By size, GE Vernova, NextEra and Constellation would swamp a clean energy basket, so many people cap them or use an equal weight index, which is close to how evenly PBW spreads its money. If the power demand behind data centers is the real bet, the AI infrastructure stocks index builder covers the utilities, grid suppliers and cooling makers directly.
From a view on the energy transition to a basket you can buy
How to build your own clean energy stocks index in four steps
1
Decide what counts
Makers only, or the developers that own the farms too? Utilities, electric vehicles and chips in or out? Those choices are most of the gap between TAN and QCLN.
2
Fill the groups
Search the catalog of US-listed stocks, add 15 to 25 names across solar, wind equipment, hydrogen and developers, and set equal, size or your own weights.
3
Backtest against the funds
Run it against the S&P 500, and build a one-line index of ICLN or TAN to put a fund with years of history on the same chart.
4
Track it, then buy it
Follow the index daily against its benchmark, export the weights, and place the basket at your own broker when you are ready.
Clean energy has one of the harshest histories to test against, which makes a backtest more useful here than almost anywhere. PBW dates from 2005 and ICLN and TAN from 2008, so a basket can be run through the 2008 crash, a decade of falling solar prices, the 2020 rally, when many clean energy stocks doubled or more in a year, and the long slide after the 2021 peak as interest rates rose and developers' financing costs climbed. Several of today's leaders are young, Nextpower listed in 2023 as Nextracker and GE Vernova in 2024, so test the older names over the full window and the newer ones over the short one, and look at the maximum drawdown before the return. Backtests are hypothetical and past returns do not predict future ones. If you cap the largest names, test a quarterly reset with the custom index rebalancing tool.
Three ways to own clean energy stocks, compared honestly
Build your own clean energy index vs a clean energy ETF vs a basket broker
| Clean energy ETF | Fidelity Basket Portfolios | Indexes, then your broker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides what counts as clean energy | The fund's index | You | You, and you can test it first |
| Yearly cost | 0.38% to 0.70% of the balance | $4.99 a month flat | From $24 a month for the software, billed yearly, plus your broker's cost |
| History you can test | Since 2005 for PBW and 2008 for ICLN and TAN | None | As far back as your youngest stock goes |
| European and Chinese wind makers | Yes, in ICLN, FAN and FRNW | US listings only | US listings, plus any fund you add as one line |
| Per-stock tax losses | No | Yes, done by you | Yes, at your broker |
| Where it falls short | You take the fund's answer on utilities, cars and chips | No way to test a design before buying | You place and rebalance the trades yourself |
The ETF wins when you want one ticker, foreign wind makers you cannot buy in New York, and no upkeep. If that is the choice, measure the fee against what you are buying, not against the label. Per $100 of solar, wind, hydrogen and developer exposure, ICLN cost $0.53 a year, FRNW $0.58 and TAN $0.70, against $1.58 for QCLN and $2.27 for PBW, because most of those two funds is something else. We rank all eight that way in cheapest clean energy ETF by expense ratio.
Building your own pays off on cost once the balance is large enough that a flat $288 a year for the software beats the fund fee, about $49,000 against QCLN and $41,000 against TAN, and whenever the mix you want is one no fund offers, such as US solar and fuel cells with no utilities and no Tesla. Owning the shares has a tax side too, and clean energy is where it matters most. These stocks can fall 30% on a single policy change or earnings report while the rest of the group holds, and that name can be sold for a tax loss while the rest of the basket stays in place, which a fund does not allow. Check the dates with the wash sale calculator before you buy the same stock back.
What Indexes does and does not do: it is index construction, backtesting and tracking software. It does not hold money, place trades or give investment advice. You design and test the clean energy stocks index here and hold it wherever you already invest.
Clean energy ETF questions
What people ask before they buy clean energy stocks
What is the best clean energy ETF?
If you want solar, wind, hydrogen and renewable developers rather than car and chip makers, Invesco's TAN was 100% in those groups in its May 31, 2026 filing, but only solar. Among broad funds, iShares' ICLN held 72.0% in July and costs 0.38%. First Trust's QCLN held 37.4%, with 53.6% in chips, electric vehicles and lithium.
Does Vanguard have a clean energy ETF?
No. Vanguard sells no clean energy or renewable energy ETF, and neither does Schwab; an SEC filing search and a web search on October 15, 2026 found none. A Vanguard or Schwab customer can buy ICLN, TAN, QCLN or Fidelity's FRNW at their own broker, or buy the clean energy stocks directly and skip the fund fee.
Does Fidelity have a clean energy ETF?
Yes. The Fidelity Clean Energy ETF (FRNW) charges 0.39% and held 50 stocks and about $154 million in its June 30, 2026 SEC filing. Its largest holding was GE Vernova at 6.0%, then Vestas, Bloom Energy, EDP and First Solar. It is a global fund: 63.2% of it sat outside the US.
Which clean energy ETF has the lowest expense ratio?
iShares' ICLN is the cheapest broad clean energy ETF at 0.38%, then Fidelity's FRNW at 0.39% and SPDR's CNRG at 0.45%. ALPS ACES charges 0.55%, QCLN 0.59%, FAN 0.60%, PBW 0.63% and TAN 0.70%. Per $100 of actual solar, wind, hydrogen and developer exposure, ICLN is still cheapest at $0.53 and PBW the dearest at $2.27.
What is the difference between ICLN and QCLN?
ICLN is a global fund of clean energy makers and power producers: 72.0% pure clean energy and 25.3% utilities in July, with 61.7% outside the US. QCLN holds only US listings and is mostly chips and cars: 30.5% semiconductors and 23.2% electric vehicles, batteries and lithium, with Tesla at 8.4%. ICLN costs 0.38% and QCLN 0.59%.
What is the difference between ICLN and TAN?
TAN holds only solar: panel, tracker and inverter makers plus solar farm developers, 31 stocks in its May 31 filing, for 0.70%. ICLN adds wind, fuel cells and utilities across 104 stocks for 0.38%. Both lead with First Solar. TAN is the narrower and more volatile bet, and 19.6% of it was Israeli solar developers.
What is the difference between ICLN and PBW?
PBW spreads its money over about 72 mostly small companies at similar weights, so no stock was above 2.4%, and only 27.7% of it was solar, wind, hydrogen or renewable developers in July. The rest included 31.2% in electric vehicles, batteries and lithium and 7.3% in electric aircraft and quantum computing. ICLN puts 49.2% in its ten largest holdings, was 72.0% pure clean energy, and costs 0.38% against 0.63%.
Can I build my own clean energy ETF?
You can build the same exposure without a fund. Pick the solar, wind, hydrogen and developer companies you want, set the weights, backtest the basket against ICLN, TAN and the S&P 500, then buy the shares at your broker, where there is no expense ratio and each stock carries its own tax lot.
Sources
Holdings, fees and assets from each issuer's fund page and daily holdings file: ftportfolios.com (QCLN and FAN) and ssga.com (CNRG and SPY) for October 13, 2026, and alpsfunds.com (ACES) for October 14, 2026. The iShares, Invesco and Fidelity websites could not be read, so ICLN and PBW holdings are from each fund's SEC Form N-PORT for July 31, 2026, FRNW's for June 30, 2026 and TAN's for May 31, 2026; those funds have rebalanced and moved in price since. Expense ratios from each fund's summary prospectus or fund page. Nextracker's renaming to Nextpower from its SEC filings. Country is each issuer's country in the SEC filings. The groups are our own classification of each holding by its main business; some companies could reasonably sit in another group, most of all GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, Dongfang Electric and Arcosa (counted as other, though each makes wind equipment; counting them as wind lifts FRNW to 73.7%, FAN to 72.7% and CNRG to 52.2%), HASI (counted as a developer though it is a financier), MP Materials (counted with electric vehicles) and Constellation (counted as a utility). Holdings and fees change, so confirm them on the fund page before you buy. Indexes is not affiliated with any fund issuer or broker named here. We make index construction and backtesting software: we do not manage money, place trades or give investment advice, and backtested results are hypothetical.
Build the clean energy index you actually meant to buy
Choose the solar, wind, hydrogen and developer companies and the weights, backtest the basket against ICLN, TAN and the S&P 500, and track it every day. Then buy it wherever you invest.
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