By Cole Mellino
Reposted with permission from EcoWatch.
As oil prices continue to drop, renewable energy1 brought in a record $329.3 billion of investment last year, according to data2 released today from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
Spending on clean energy technology increased 4% from 2014, due to tumbling prices for photovoltaics and wind turbines, as well as large investments in offshore wind farms3. According to BNEF, renewable energy installation in 2015 was up 30% compared to the same period in 2014, setting a record for the most installation of renewable power capacity in a year. Globally, wind4 and solar5 made up half of all new generation technologies, including fossil fuels. Around 64 gigawatts of wind capacity and 57 gigawatts of solar were commissioned.
“These figures are a stunning riposte to all those who expected clean energy investment to stall on falling oil and gas prices,” Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board for BNEF, said6. “They highlight the improving cost-competitiveness of solar and wind power.”
2015 set a record for renewable energy investments. Credit: Bloomberg New Energy Finance
Emerging markets saw substantial increases in renewable energy investments. China remained the largest market, increasing investment 17% to $110.5 billion. That’s nearly double the $56 billion invested by the U.S., which came in second in BNEF’s rankings. India increased its investment by 23% to $10.9 billion. New markets such as Mexico, Chile and South Africa attracted tens of billions of dollars. Brazil was an outlier, where investments dropped 10% to $7.5 billion.
In contrast to emerging markets, Europe saw investments in renewable energy fall 18% to $58.5 billion in 2015, its lowest figure since 2006. Germany and France saw investment levels fall by 42 and 53%, respectively. The UK, however, bucked Europe’s overall trend, with investments growing 24% due, in part, to large offshore wind developments, such as the 580 megawatt Race Bank wind farm in the North Sea.
The 2015 renewable energy installation record is “all the more remarkable as cost-competitiveness improvements in solar and wind power mean that more megawatts can be installed for the same price,” the report explains.
“Wind and solar power are now being adopted in many developing countries as a natural and substantial part of the generation mix,” Liebreich said. “They can be produced more cheaply than often high wholesale power prices. They reduce a country’s exposure to expected fossil fuel prices. And above all, they can be built very quickly to meet unfulfilled demand for electricity.”
“And it is very hard to see these trends going backwards, in the light of December’s Paris Climate Agreement7,” Liebreich added.
The boom in clean energy investment, as BNEF explains, comes in spite of the low price in fossil fuels8, which some analysts predicted would restrain investment in renewables.
“Over the past 18 months the price of Brent crude has dropped 67% to below $40 per barrel, while the price of natural gas in the U.S. fell 48% and the price of international steam coal dropped 35% in Europe,” BusinessGreen9 said. On Tuesday, the price of crude in the West Texas Intermediate10 briefly dropped below $30 a barrel11 for the first time in 12 years.
Despite low oil prices, renewables saw record investments in 2015. Credit: Bloomberg
Cole Mellino writes for EcoWatch
EcoWatch, http://ecowatch.com/
Source: http://bit.ly/ecowatch-invest-re-2015
Links: 1ecowatch.com/business/renewables/; 2www.bloomberg.com/company/clean-energy-investment/; 3ecowatch.com/2015/11/10/offshore-wind-technology/; 4ecowatch.com/?s=wind; 5ecowatch.com/?s=solar; 6www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-14/renewables-drew-record-329-billion-in-year-oil-prices-crashed; 7ecowatch.com/2016/01/08/paris-agreement-clean-energy/; 8ecowatch.com/2016/01/04/renewable-energy-soars/; 9www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2441828/clean-energy-attracts-record-usd329bn-investment-despite-fossil-fuel-price-crash; 10https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Texas_Intermediate; 11ecowatch.com/2016/01/13/oil-prices-drop/.
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