We all know the story of how mobile phones took off in emerging markets. Suddenly small cocoa farmers in Africa who never had a landline or a computer were checking commodity prices on their smartphones.

Today something similarly profound is starting to happen with renewable energy. 

For the first time, more than half the world's annual investment in clean energy is coming from emerging markets instead of from wealthier nations, according to a new analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The handoff occurred last year, and it's just the beginning.

The chart below shows quarterly clean-energy investment in OECD countries vs. non-OECD countries. The trajectory is clear: If you're a power plant salesperson, you're probably going to be working with renewables in poor countries from now into the foreseeable future.