Green Energy Investments Hit $211 Billion

The main drivers of the unprecedented levels of green energy investments in the past year have been developing countries such as China, where a huge investment was made in wind farms, and small-scale installations in Europe. Roof-top solar, particularly in Germany, but across all of Europe.

One noticeable statistic in the report is that for the first time, total green energy investments from developing economies surpassed those from developed economies. Over 2010, China was the leader in terms of green energy investments, with a total of $48.9 billion, at 28% increase on 2009. China was also one of the few countries in which green energy investments increased from 2008 to 2009 with the government and other investors pressing ahead, seemingly unhindered by the global economic downturn. 2010 saw that trend continue.

Other parts of the developing world also showed strong growth in green energy investments over 2010. South and Central America saw $13.1 billion of investments, a 39% increase on the previous year. The Middle East and Africa saw a massive 104% growth in green energy investments, up to $5 billion. It must be noted that the starting point was far lower than in other regions. India saw a an overall year-on-year growth of 25% taking total green energy investments to $3.8 billion for 2010. The rest of Asia’s developing economies out with India and China, showed 31% growth on 2009 with total green energy investments hitting the $4 billion mark.

Small-scale capacity building, predominantly roof-top solar, was the main driver of European growth in green energy investments. In Germany these small-scale green energy investments hit $34 billion, a rise of 132% on the previous year. Most other European countries saw similar exponential growth in this sector, though not on quite the same scale. Italy saw 59% rise to $5.5 billion and France and the Czech republic both topped 100% year on year growth with, respectively, 150% and 163% growth up to $2.7 billion and $2.3 billion.

This growth in small-scale green energy investments across Europe was the result of the introduction of feed-in tariffs, an EU initiative guaranteeing that all electricity produced by such installations would be bought by the network for an inflation indexed fixed price for up to 25 years. This meant that investors had their returns ensured by government backed feed-in tariffs at highly predictable levels.

As well as incentives such as Europe’s feed-in tariffs, governments internationally showed great commitment to green energy investments. Government research and development investment grew by 120% over 2010 up to $5 billion.

By: Tonka Dobreva

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Overall, it is hard to argue that 2010 was a watershed year for green energy investments. We all hope, and indeed it is forecast, that this trend will continue strongly throughout 2011. It will be very interesting to see the figures in next years report. More details about green investments you may find at greeninvestmentsguide.com