Solar boosts 2017 level of clean energy investment January 17 (Renewables Now)
Global clean energy investment in 2017 increased to USD 333.5 billion (EUR 272bn), in spite of a continuing drop in solar costs per MW, show figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) released Tuesday.
Investment in renewable energy and energy-smart technologies last year was 3% higher than 2016 investment levels, mainly thanks to an extraordinary boom in photovoltaic (PV) capacity additions in China. The 2017 total is all the more remarkable when you consider that capital costs for the leading technology solar continue to fall sharply, said BNEFs CEO Jon Moore.
Regardless of the cost reductions, global solar investment in 2017 improved by 18% on the year to USD 160.8 billion, of which some USD 86.5 billion was spent in China. The Asian country installed 53 GW of fresh PV capacity last year, thus lifting solar investment by 58% on a yearly basis. The expansion there came as local regulators were slow to put a limit on the deployment of utility-scale PV projects outside allocated government quotas and the lack of a cap for distributed generation capacity.