Clean power sees first win over fossil fuels in emerging markets

BEIJING: Developing countries have added more clean power capacity than fossil fuel generation for the first time ever, charging ahead of wealthier nations in the global green energy push, according to Bloomberg NEF.

Wind and solar generation accounted for just over half of the 186GW of new power capacity in developing nations last year, according to BNEF’s annual Climatescope survey released yesterday.

Not only that, they’ve added more clean energy generation than developed economies, increasing zero-carbon capacity by 114GW compared with about 63GW in richer countries.

The findings show a turnaround from a decade ago when the world’s wealthiest nations dominated renewable investment and deployment activities. Many developing countries have an abundance of natural resources and lower equipment costs, allowing new renewable projects to become cheaper than fossil plants, according to the report.

“Just a few years ago, some argued that less developed nations could not, or even should not, expand power generation with zero-carbon sources because these were too expensive,” Dario Traum, BNEF Climatescope project manager said in a statement. “Today, these countries are leading the charge when it comes to deployment, investment, policy innovation and cost reductions.”

Emerging markets added the least new coal-fired power generating capacity last year since at least 2006. New coal plants in these countries slumped 38% from a year earlier to 48GW in 2017, which was about half of the peak in 2015, according to BNEF.

For the Climatescope survey, BNEF conducts country-by-country assessments of clean-energy market conditions and scores each nation, with more points awarded for investments and policy reforms that support clean energy and countries’ openness to international investors over the availability of local manufacturing. The survey included 103 nations, up from 71 in the previous report. — Bloomberg