The UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) has come out with the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment Report which is fuelled by data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The massive $35.1 billion drop in renewable energy investments have been attributed to the global fall in the technology price of solar photovoltaic systems. But this might be a good sign for the sector and does not necessarily mean a fall in commitments for the sector.
Highlights of the report-
| “Total investments in renewable power and fuels except largerhydro-electric projects continued to fall for the second year running in 2013, reaching $214billion worldwide, which is 14% lower than in 2012and 23% below the 2011 record. The decline reflected a sharp fall in solar system prices, and the effect of policy uncertainty in many countries.” | Prices for solar PV systems fell sharply leading to more capacity addition in the segment. 39 GW was added. | Wind did fairly well and saw fall of1% to $80 billion, solar however, fell 20% to $114 billion. Biofuels 26% and biomass and waste-to-energy by 28% to $8 billion, and small hydro-electric (projectsof less than 50MW) declined 16% to $5 billion.Geothermal recorded a rise of 38% to $2.5 billion. |
| Developing nations saw a large drop of 14%, to $122 billion. | China did better than Europe (44% fall) even though investments fell by 6%to $56 billion.US saw a decline of10% to $36 billion, while India moved 15% down to $6 billion, and Brazil 54% down to $3 billion, the lowest since 2005. | “The only regions gaining ground in 2013 were theAmericas excluding the US and Brazil, with a 26%increase to $12 billion, helped by positive trends inseveral Hispanic countries and in Canada, and Asia- Oceania excluding China and India, with a 47% rise to $43 billion. Japan was the biggest contributor to the latter move, as its solar boom helped to drive an 80% increase in renewable energy investment to $29 billion (excluding R&D).” |
While in case of India, the upcoming elections and the reluctance of the old government to take any major decisions might be attributed towards a fall in investments, market sentiments about “policy support, and reductions in technology costs, were the two main reasons for the fall in global financial commitments to renewable energy in 2013” as per the report.
Reference and further reading-
http://fs-unep-centre.org/sites/default/files/attachments/14008nef_visual_12_key_findings.pdf
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