diff --git a/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/lib/renderer.ts b/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/lib/renderer.ts
index cfc74e0e423..1f56b911e19 100644
--- a/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/lib/renderer.ts
+++ b/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/lib/renderer.ts
@@ -670,9 +670,19 @@ export function renderComponent(
    * We can only replace the inner HTML the first time.
    * Because destruction is async, it won't be safe to
    * do this again, and we'll have to rely on the above destroy.
+   *
+   * Use a structural check instead of `into instanceof Element` so the
+   * renderer doesn't depend on the `Element` constructor being a
+   * global. Browsers always have it; Node / Bun servers running with a
+   * bare simple-dom Document do not, and would otherwise hit
+   * `ReferenceError: Element is not defined` here. The `'element' in
+   * into` test matches the existing `intoTarget()` helper above:
+   * `Cursor` has `element`; `Element` / `SimpleElement` do not. The
+   * `'innerHTML' in into` follow-up keeps the clearing scoped to the
+   * real-Element case (`SimpleElement` has no `innerHTML` setter).
    */
-  if (!existing && into instanceof Element) {
-    into.innerHTML = '';
+  if (!existing && !('element' in into) && 'innerHTML' in into) {
+    (into as Element).innerHTML = '';
   }
 
   /**
@@ -689,8 +699,11 @@ export function renderComponent(
    */
   let renderTarget: IntoTarget = into;
   if (existing?.glimmerResult) {
-    let parentElement =
-      into instanceof Element ? (into as unknown as SimpleElement) : (into as Cursor).element;
+    // Reuse the same `intoTarget()` shape used by the lower-level
+    // `BaseRenderer#render` path so all code that needs a parent
+    // Element from an `IntoTarget` agrees on the discriminator. As a
+    // bonus, this avoids the `globalThis.Element` dependency above.
+    let parentElement = intoTarget(into).element;
     let firstNode = existing.glimmerResult.firstNode();
     renderTarget = { element: parentElement, nextSibling: firstNode };
   }
diff --git a/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/tests/integration/components/render-component-test.ts b/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/tests/integration/components/render-component-test.ts
index 85319efad4c..a24fcd1cf9c 100644
--- a/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/tests/integration/components/render-component-test.ts
+++ b/packages/@ember/-internals/glimmer/tests/integration/components/render-component-test.ts
@@ -186,6 +186,48 @@ moduleFor(
       assertHTML('');
       this.assertStableRerender();
     }
+
+    '@test renderComponent does not depend on a global Element constructor'(assert: Assert) {
+      // Stash and unset `globalThis.Element` so the previous
+      // `into instanceof Element` check would crash with
+      // `ReferenceError: Element is not defined`. After the structural-
+      // check fix, `renderComponent` should still resolve the parent
+      // element and render without consulting any global. This matters
+      // for non-browser hosts (Node / Bun servers, edge workers) that
+      // don't ship a DOM Element constructor by default — only the
+      // simple-dom node types they were given via `env.document`.
+      let saved = (globalThis as { Element?: unknown }).Element;
+      (globalThis as { Element?: unknown }).Element = undefined;
+
+      try {
+        let Foo = setComponentTemplate(precompileTemplate('Hello, world!'), templateOnly());
+
+        let owner = buildOwner({});
+        let manualDestroy: () => void;
+
+        run(() => {
+          let result = renderComponent(Foo, {
+            owner,
+            into: this.element,
+          });
+          manualDestroy = result.destroy;
+          this.component = {
+            ...result,
+            rerender() {
+              // unused, but asserted against
+            },
+          };
+        });
+
+        assertHTML('Hello, world!');
+        assert.ok(true, 'renderComponent ran to completion with `globalThis.Element` undefined');
+
+        run(() => manualDestroy());
+        run(() => destroy(owner));
+      } finally {
+        (globalThis as { Element?: unknown }).Element = saved;
+      }
+    }
   }
 );