According to Bloomberg New Finance, in 2011 worldwide investment in clean energy reached $260 billion, an increase of 5% over 2010. The largest share of the investment in 2011 was in solar, up 36% to $136.6 billion. The price of the photovoltaic (PV) modules fell by close to 50% in 2011. Bloomberg says that PV is approaching competitiveness with other sources of power. Wind was second in investment.
US investment in clean technology was up signfiicantly, $55.9 billion or 33%, in 2011. China’s investment in clean energy was only slightly higher than in 2010, about $47 billion. For the first time since 2008, US investment in clean technology exceeded China’s in 2011.
Clean energy investment in Europe rose 3% to $100.2bn, primarily in solar. India’s investment in clean energy was up 52% to $10.3 billion. Brazil was up 15% to $8.2 billion.
The largest type of investment was utility-scale renewable energy projects which increased from $138.3 billion in 2010 to $145.6 billion in 2011. The second largest investment type in 2011 was distributed renewable power technology, primarily rooftop PV. Distributed renewable investment reached $73.8 billion in 2011, up significantly from $60.4 billion in 2010.
The third-largest sector for investment in 2011 after solar and wind was energy-smart technologies, including smart grid, power storage, efficiency and advanced transport. This area saw total investment of $19.2 billion.
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