China pushes U.S to No.2 position in renewable energy investment

solar panel

Greentech Lead America: Renewable energy sector in 2012 grew globally by 88 gigawatts (GW) despite 11 percent decline in investments to $269 billion from their 2011 total, says a new research from Pew Research.

China leads the world in terms of renewable energy investment, pushing the U.S to the No.2 position. China attracted $65.1 billion in renewable energy investments in 2012 while U.S. had $35.6 billion. With $22.8 billion investment, Germany was ranked third.

Only China posted a net increase in attracting investors to its renewable energy sector when compared to 2011 figures.

With new markets emerging, renewable energy sector is witnessing a “West to East geographical shift.” India and China are playing a lead role to drive this change, the report finds.

In India, solar investments declined 45 percent to US$2.3 billion in 2012m; despite this 1 GW of new solar generating capacity was added.

“While clean energy investment was down in India in 2012, recent policy initiatives demonstrate the country’s ongoing commitment to solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies,” said Phyllis Cuttino, director of Pew’s clean energy program.

India has set a target to install 3 GW of clean energy by 2017.

South Africa was the fastest-growing market in the G-20, with investment growing from less than $ 30 million in 2011, to $5.5 billion in 2012– a staggering 20,500 percent increase.

The solar sector in South Africa attracted $4.3 billion of investment in 2012.

Meanwhile, green energy investments in Japan increased 75 percent to $16.3 billion. Almost all of this investments happened in solar sector that added more than 2 GW of generating capacity. This nation climbed to number 5 in the investment ranking for last year.

For the second year in a row, solar technologies attracted more financing than any other renewable energy technology by a wide margin. China, Europe and the United States lead in terms of solar investment. With 126 billion investments, solar comprises 58 percent of the G20 total.

The three regions where solar investments are high complained that solar industry is following unfair trade practices.

Globally, wind energy investments were down 14 percent in 2011 among the 19 major industrialized economies and European Union. Despite this, the industry managed an overall total of $72.7 billion.

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