Jake Schmidt: Renewable energy keeps growing, Earth Summit in Rio provides opportunity for more action

Photo Credit: Ryan Heaney

Several new reports released over the past few days show that renewable energy keeps growing, with more countries implementing policies or incentives to spur renewable energy deployment.  The studies found that renewable energy accounted for $211 billion in new investments in 2010 – an increase of 32% from the previous year. Next year at the Earth Summit in Rio, countries and companies have a chance to build upon this momentum by committing to deeper actions to spur renewable energy deployment within their country and company. This is an important opportunity that shouldn’t be missed.

So what are the key findings of these new reports (one from the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century –REN21—and the other from the UN Environment Program –UNEP)?

Renewable investments are a very large sector that is growing rapidly. If it were a country, the total value of new renewable energy investments in 2010 would make it the 42nd largest economy in the world.*  According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data, total new investments in renewable energy amounted to $211 billion in 2010 – a 32% increase from the previous year. The value of renewable investments has been growing significantly from 2004 when data was first collected (see figure).  New renewable investments have achieved a staggering 539% increase since 2004.  That increase would compare very favorably to any economic sector in the world. 

More countries are taking action at home to spur renewable energy deployment. At least 119 countries had some type of national policy target or renewable support policy. The number of countries with such policies more than doubled since 2005.  As a result, commercial wind power exists in 83 countries – whereas just a handful had wind in the 1990s.  In 2010, solar PV capacity was added in more than 100 countries.  This shows that wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources aren’t some mythical source of energy that only a small number of countries can tap into.

Non-fossil energy* accounted for almost 50% of the new electricity capacity added in 2010. Wind, solar, and geothermal accounted for about 30% of the estimated new electricity capacity brought on line in 2010.  If you include hydropower and biomass power then the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity was around 50% of the total newinstalled capacity in 2010 (see table).  While sources of electricity that contribute to global warming are still too large, this data shows that more countries are investing in renewable energy as they look to meet their growing energy needs.

Read more at the NRDC Switchboard blog.

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Category: Fresh Air