What’s happening worldwide with regard to investments in renewable energy? Well, according to the latest results of United Nations Environment Programme’s 9th “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2014 Report”, created by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre and the research company Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the global investments in renewable energy have grown 17%, resulting in amount of $270 billion. The International Energy Agency predicts that the renewables will contribute in total 31% of global electricity generation by 2035.
2014 has been so far the best year in green energy investments – 103 GW of new generating capacity has been added, and at the same time solar- and wind technology are becoming more affordable. Therefore, every dollar invested in renewable energy has bought remarkably more generating capacity. To illustrate the power of the 103 GW of capacity added in 2014 – it equals the energy generating capacity of all 158 nuclear power plant reactors in the USA.
Last year, the market was dominated by the record number of investments in solar and wind energy, which represented 92 per cent of overall investment in renewable power and fuels. Investment in solar increased 25 per cent to $149.6 billion, while wind investment grew 11 per cent to a record $99.5 billion.
A key feature of the last year’s results was the rapid expansion of renewables into new markets in developing countries. Investment in developing countries soared 36 per cent to $131.3 billion. China with $83.3 billion, Brazil – $7.6 billion, India – $7.4 billion and South Africa – $5.5 billion, were all in the top 10 investing countries, and more than $1 billion was invested in Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, Kenya and Turkey.
China was the leader in promoting green energy investments – a record of $83.3 billion, up 39% from 2013. The US was second at $38.3 billion, up 7% from last year. Third investor was Japan, at $35.7 billion, 10% higher than in 2013.
In contrast, Europe, the pioneer in green energy movement, has little to show in comparison to the great figures seen in the investments made by developing countries. The investments in Europe hardly changed at $57.5 billion and the total renewables investment in developed economies rose only 3% to $138.9 billion.
This is a guest post from GreenMatch.co.uk, an information website, providing consumers with quotes about green energy and renewable energy sources. Furthermore, GreenMatch offers a simple and free of charge service, that helps thousands of people to save time and money, by comparing prices of renewable energy products from top installers in the UK.