Global clean energy investment at $333.5b
Global investment in renewable energy and energysmart technologies reached $333.5 billion last year, up by 3 per cent from a revised $324.6 billion in 2016.
MUSCAT: Global investment in renewable energy and energy-smart technologies reached $333.5 billion last year, up by 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.
This extraordinary boom in photovoltaic ( PV) installations made 2017 a record year for China’s investment in clean energy and over-shadowed changes elsewhere, including jumps in investment in Australia and Mexico, and declines in Japan, the UK and Germany, according to annual figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), based on its world-leading database of projects and deals.
“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,” Jon Moore, chief executive of BNEF, said.
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.
“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,” Justin Wu, head of Asia-Pacific for BNEF, said.
“Second, the cost of solar con- tinues 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,” he added.
Investment by countries
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.
Solar energy
Solar led the way, as mentioned above, attracting $160.8 billion — equivalent to 48 per cent of the global total for all of clean energy investment. The two biggest solar projects of all to get the goahead last year were both in the United Arab Emirates: the 1.2GW Marubeni JinkoSolar and Adwea Sweihan plant, at $899 million, and the 800MW Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum III installation, at an estimated $968 million. Wind was the secondbiggest sector for investment in 2017, at $107.2 billion.