Renewable Energy Investments goes down

2013-04-17 (canadian association for renewable energies) Global investment in renewable energies is down 38% from Q1 of last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a sharper decline that the 22% decline in energy investments worldwide. It was the weakest quarter for clean energy investment since 2009, although most of Asia (excluding China) surged in renewable energy investment, led by Japan. The overall downturn is due to lower financing in large wind and solar projects, the effects of policy uncertainty in key markets such as the US and Germany, and the effect of recent sharp declines in technology costs, particularly those of solar PV panels. Bloomberg CEO Michael Liebreich says Q1 2013 investments for renewables, energy efficiency and energy-smart technologies was $40.6 billion. “For investment in clean energy to play its role in stemming the growth in world GHG emissions, we would need to see investment levels at least double by 2020, rather than fall.” The US experienced a 54% year-over-year decline to $4.5 billion, China retreated by 15% to $8.8 billion, and Europe dropped 25% to $13.4 billion. The largest decline was in the asset finance of utility-scale projects such as windfarms and solar parks, which fell 34% to $19.3 billion.