Worldwide Clean Energy Investment Hits $333.5 Billion in 2017
Worldwide Clean Energy Investment Hits $333.5 Billion in 2017
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) just released its most recent detailed data for the global clean energy sector. These data show the sector is still pretty strong although the big growth areas are shifting to China and other parts of Asia. See the Press Release.
BNEF has become the go-to open source for this kind of information, as others no longer make it available, except to subscribers.
The 2016 total includes all project finance, corporate finance, and venture investment. The peak year for this activity was 2015 with $360.3 billion in investment. US investment was $56.9 billion, about even with 2016. China grew 24% to $132.6 billion, more than double the US record.
Venture capital and private equity investment fell 38% to $4.1 billion, the lowest level since 2005. The biggest deals were in China and India.
There were clearly favored technologies as just three target segments for investment got 95% of the total. The largest was solar at $160.8 billion accounting for 48% of the total. Wind was second at $107.2 billion. And Smart Energy–including smart grid, energy efficiency, battery storage and electric vehicles–was third with $48.8 billion.
Biomass, alternate fuels, fuel cells, geothermal, small hydro and everything else accounted for $16.9 billion.
For more, you can download the entire report here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.