17 Jan Global renewable energy investment amounts to $282 billion in 2019
Global investment in renewable energy capacity creeped up by 1% in 2019, boosted by a string of offshore wind deals in the second half of the year.
BloombergNEF estimated that US$282 billion was invested in renewables projects last year, compared with $280.2 billion in 2018.
A spate of late offshore wind financing pushed investment in the sector up to $29.9 billion – a 19% increase on 2018.
Notable offshore wind projects reaching financial close in Q4 included the 432MW Neart na Gaoithe project near Scotland and the 376MW Formosa 2 Miaoli development off Taiwan.
“Offshore wind developers in China brought forward 15 projects to beat a scheduled expiry of that country’s feed-in tariff,” said BloombergNEF wind research chief Tom Harries.
“We expect the sector’s global momentum to continue in 2020, with the focus on gigawatt-scale projects in the British North Sea and the first commercial arrays off the US east coast.”
China was the biggest investor in renewables at $83.4 billion, although this was 8% down on 2018 and its lowest total investment since 2013.