Greentech Lead India: Global revenue for solar PV, wind
power, and biofuels has increased 31 percent to $246.1 billion in 2011 from
$188.1 billion in 2010.
The bulk of this expansion came from double-digit growth
rates for both wind and solar deployment globally, according clean-tech
research and advisory firm Clean Edge.
“Last year saw many in the clean-tech community
caught off guard, as the industry became a modern-day whipping boy,” said
Ron Pernick, Clean Edge co-founder and managing director.
The global market for solar photovoltaics including
modules, system components, and installation increased from $71.2 billion in
2010 to $91.6 billion in 2011. While total market revenues were up 29 percent,
installations climbed more than 69 percent from 15.6 gigawatts in 2010 to more
than 26 GW worldwide last year.
This 40-point discrepancy was due to rapidly declining
solar costs. Crystalline solar PV module prices, for example, dropped more than
40 percent between 2010 and 2011, and Clean Edge projects that the cost to
install solar PV systems will fall from an average of $3.47 per watt globally
in 2011 to $1.28 within the next decade.
Wind power (new installation capital costs) totaled $71.5
billion in 2011, up 18 percent from $60.5 billion the prior year, and is
projected to reach $116.3 billion in 2021. Last year’s global wind power
installations equaled 41.6 GW, the largest year for global installations on
record. China remained the global leader in new installations for the fourth
year in a row, installing more than 40 percent of all global wind capacity, or
18 GW in total.
Biofuels (global production and wholesale pricing of
ethanol and biodiesel) reached $83 billion in 2011, up from $56.4 billion the
prior year. Bucking solar and wind’s declining cost trends, this increase was
mostly due to a rise in ethanol and biodiesel prices, the result of higher
costs for feedstock commodities — mainly sugar for ethanol and rapeseed and
other vegetable oils for biodiesel.
U.S.-based venture capital investments in clean tech
increased 30 percent from $5.1 billion in 2010 to $6.6 billion in 2011,
according to data provided by Cleantech Group. Clean Edge analysis found that
clean-tech’s percentage of total U.S. venture capital investments accounted for
a record 23.2 percent of total U.S. venture activity last year.