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It appears that the recession affecting most of the world just now has not done anything to adversely affect investment in renewable energy technology. Last year investments reached an all time high despite the poor economic conditions. However the experts are growing concerned as the growth has not continued into this year and there are signs that things are slowing down.
In 2011 renewable energy investment reached a high of £165bn which is a rise of around 17% on the 2010 figure but a massive 600% increase on 2004’s figures. However even though these figures are impressive the rate of growth is dropping significantly and it seems that those involved in the green energy industries are concerned about the investments reaching their peak and starting to tail off.
The top renewable investors last year were China and the US, the US investment was particularly positive given the recent boom of shale gas and their political issues regarding renewable investments. However fears are that the investment boom is directly tied to the incentive schemes related to green energy investment and that once the schemes come to an end investment will dwindle accordingly.
Solar power appears to be the top renewable investment vehicle at the moment overtaking the normally popular wind power. This most likely due to the falling prices associated with the technology needed for solar power generation. In fact solar power received nearly twice the money of wind power which is normally viewed as the investment leader.
The total investment in solar power has increased a massive 52% to £95bn. At large part of this increase can be attributed to rooftop PV (photo voltaic) installations in Germany and Italy as well as the rapid uptake of domestic scale PV to other countries throughout the world i.e. China.
Sources are now reporting that renewable energy is supplying around 16.7% of global energy consumption, however a lot of that is in the more traditional biomass form which is used for heating and cooking in developing nations however the biomass share of this percentage has decreased as the uptake of other technologies has increased.
