Renewables investments are bouncing back in 2014

If investments in renewables fell over the recent years it seems 2014 will see them bounce back. As Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported, investments in the first three quarters have jumped 16 percent.

As Bloomberg explains :

About $175 billion was spent globally on renewable energy projects during the first three quarters, up 16 percent from the same period last year, with Chinese solar investment at a record, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report.

Spending in the third quarter gained 12 percent to $55 billion from $48.9 billion a year earlier, the London-based research company said today in statement. Almost $20 billion of that was in China, where solar investing soared to $12.2 billion from $7.5 billion.

The world’s largest solar market may add 14 gigawatts of capacity this year, almost a third of the global total, as more large-scale projects are built, BNEF said. Japan, the second-biggest solar market, increased spending 17 percent to $8.6 billion in the third quarter.

“The patterns of investment are different geographically, with China taking more of a role and other parts of Asia coming on strong, particularly Japan,” Ethan Zindler, a BNEF analyst based in Washington, said in an interview yesterday. “The makeup is really quite different compared with as recently as 2011 or 2012, when Europe accounted for a major share of the total.”

Investment in Europe tumbled to $8.8 billion, the lowest in more than eight years, as spending in the U.K., Italy and Germany fell.

In the U.S., investment reached $7.3 billion from $5.7 billion on increased demand for residential- and commercial-scale solar, offsetting a volatile wind-power industry, Zindler said.

So… Is Europe giving up on renewables altogether or what ? This would be really bad news instead of decreasing efforts we should just increase them…

Meanwhile, Japan has installed over 11 gigawatts of renewables in the last two years. The country is determined to replace its nuclear capacity by solar, other renewables and energy efficiency. Now that’s leadership.

Image source : a future solar plant by Conergy in New Caledonia.

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