Remember my post on how a trillion had been invested in cleantech ? Well, the trend is accelerating as $260 billion (approx. 200 billion euros) were invested in 2011 alone as Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported.
So, everything wasn’t so bad last year and especially not for the United States, which reclaimed their leadership from China in this sector. This was a first since 2008. What would happen if the US Governement was backing cleantech ?
America invested $56 billion and China $47 billion. Global investments in solar grew by 36 percent to reach $137 billion in 2011.
Solar PV modules prices were slashed by almost fifty percent in only twelve months…
Here is a quick quote from the Forbes article :
After solar and wind, what Bloomberg calls energy-smart technologies – smart grid, energy storage, efficiency – grabbed $19. 2 billion in investment while biofuels attracted $9 billion, geothermal $2.8 billion and marine power $0.3 billion.
As I stated before, I think we should invest much much more in efficiency. And this is proving me right.
Climate Progress gives us some valuable background information on how the industry is growing :
According to BNEF, global investments in renewables reached a new record of $260 billion in 2011, a modest 5% increase over 2010. However, those investment figures are roughly five times what they were in 2004. Last year also saw the one trillionth dollar invested in the sector since tracking began seven years ago:
The record investment figures for 2011 are particularly striking because they were achieved during a turbulent year for the world economy in general and for the clean energy sector in particular. The industry has suffered severe pressure on the profit margins of manufacturers, a sharp fall in share prices, some notable bankruptcies, cuts in European government subsidy support, and a reduction in the availability of bank finance.
But anyway, these are sure good news and we should make sure the common public hears about it : it proves cleantech works and that it represents sounds investments…