With 2019 drawing to a close, we're about to put another decade in the books. One of the major storylines over the past 10 years has been the advancement of renewable energy, which has gone from a niche market supported by government subsidies to one that's growing briskly without any assistance.
The sector's emergence over the past 10 years hasn't been without its share of growing pains. Overly aggressive expansion caused the industry to have too much capacity at times, while also burdening some companies with more debt than they could handle. Those issues caused several renewable-energy stocks to burn their investors by delivering poor performance.
A small handful of companies, however, have stood out by generating excellent returns for their investors. Here's a look at the five best ones from the past decade.