Yemisi Izuora With Agency Report
World clean energy investment totalled $333.5bn last year, up 3 per cent from 2016 and the second highest annual figure ever, taking cumulative investment since 2010 to $2.5tn.
This is according to a new report published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance BNEF.
China was highlighted as the leader in solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in 2017, taking over big strides made in clean in investment in Australia and Mexico, and declines in Japan, the UK and Germany.
Annual figures from BNEF, based on its world-leading database of projects and deals, show that global investment in renewable energy and energy-smart technologies reached $333.5 billion last year, up 3 per cent from a revised $324.6 billion in 2016, and only 7 per cent short of the record figure of $360.3 billion, reached in 2015.
Jon Moore, chief executive of BNEF, commented: “The 2017 total is all the more remarkable when you consider that capital costs for the leading technology – solar – continue to fall sharply.
“Typical utility-scale PV systems were about 25 per cent cheaper per megawatt last year than they were two years earlier.”
Solar investment globally amounted to $160.8 billion in 2017, up 18 per cent on the previous year despite these cost reductions. Just over half of that world total, or $86.5 billion, was spent in China.
This was 58 per cent higher than in 2016, with an estimated 53GW of PV capacity installed – up from 30GW in 2016.
Justin Wu, head of Asia-Pacific for BNEF, said: “China installed about 20GW more solar capacity in 2017 than we forecast. This happened for two main reasons: first, despite a growing subsidy burden and worsening power curtailment, China’s regulators, under pressure from the industry, were slow to curb build of utility-scale projects outside allocated government quotas. Developers of these projects are assuming they will be allocated subsidy in future years.”
Wu added: “Second, the cost of solar continues to fall in China, and more projects are being deployed on rooftops, in industrial parks or at other distributed locales.
“These systems are not limited by the government quota. Large energy consumers in China are now installing solar panels to meet their own demand, with a minimal premium subsidy.”
Overall, Chinese investment in all the clean energy technologies was $132.6 billion, up 24 per cent setting a new record. The next biggest investing country was the US, at $56.9 billion, up 1 per cent on 2016 despite the less friendly tone towards renewables adopted by the Trump administration.
Large wind and solar project financings pushed Australia up 150 per cent to a record $9 billion, and Mexico up 516 per cent to $6.2 billion.
On the downside, Japan saw investment decline by 16 per cent in 2017, to $23.4 billion, while Germany slipped 26 per cent to $14.6 billion and the UK 56 per cent to $10.3 billion in the face of changes in policy support. Europe as a whole invested $57.4 billion, down 26 per cent year-on-year.