A new report from the UN shows 2008 to be overall another positive year for investments in renewable energy, even in the face of the crippling global economic crisis.
A total of USD $155 billion was invested in clean energy companies and projects globally, quadruple the figure in 2004.
Investment in new energy generation projects such as solar power and wind energy grew by 13% during 2008, to USD $117 billion.
The sustainable energy sector displayed a degree of resilience to the global financial crisis and it wasn’t until the start of 2009 that the full impact was really evident. However, the report says there were already some ‘green shoots’ of recovery during the second quarter of 2009, but it will take some time for the sector to reach the investment levels of late 2007 and early 2008.
Europe saw $50 billion being invested in projects during 2008, an increase of only 2% on 2007 and the USA saw $30 billion, down substantially by 8%.
While spending in Western countries dropped close to 2% overall, there was a 27% increase to $36.6 billion in developing countries, primarily China, which comprised over 40% of that total.
Approximately 40GW of new renewable energy power generation capacity was added globally in 2008 (figures from REN21 Renewables Global Status Report 2009 Update).
2008 also saw a very important milestone – it was the first year that renewable energy investment (including large hydro) was more than investment in fossil-fuel technologies.
Even given these figures, renewable energy still only accounted for 6.2 % of total energy generation capacity in 2008.
