The Global Trends Report 2011 says that global investment in renewable energy jumped 32% in 2010 to a record $211 billion.
Investment in developing countries increased strongly, and in fact has overtaken richer countries in terms of new investments.
Germany led the way in solar photovoltaics and installed more PV in 2010 than what was installed across the globe in the previous year. The US and Japan saw new solar installations almost double from 2009 levels. Across 100 countries there were significant solar PV capacity additions.
Wind was the big winner and accounted for most of new electricity capacity, except in Europe, which installed more solar power than wind.
Driving the added renewable capacity are policy targets, mostly in the developing world. By the beginning of 2011, 119 countries had some sort of policy in place.
Renewable energy accounted for 10.9% of domestic primary energy production in the U.S., which is almost the same as nuclear at 11.3%. Meanwhile, in China, renewable energy accounted for 26% of total installed electricity capacity. Brazil continued to lead in the ethanol arena and added more hydropower, biomass and wind power farms.
In Europe renewable energy accounted for 41% of new installed capacity, which exceeded its 2010 targets for wind, solar PV, Concentrated Solar Power, solar heating and heat pumps.
“The global performance of renewable energy despite headwinds has been a positive constant in turbulent timesâ€, said Mohamed El-Ashry, chairman of REN21’s Steering Committee. “Today, more people than ever before derive energy from renewables as capacity continues to grow, prices continue to fall, and shares of global energy from renewable energy continue to increase.â€
For further information visit the website with an interactive renewables map.
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