Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — About $175 billion was spent globally
on renewable energy projects during the first three quarters, up
16 percent from the same period last year, with Chinese solar
investment at a record, according to a Bloomberg New Energy
Finance report.
Spending in the third quarter gained 12 percent to $55
billion from $48.9 billion a year earlier, the London-based
research company said today in statement. Almost $20 billion of
that was in China, where solar investing soared to $12.2 billion
from $7.5 billion.
The world’s largest solar market may add 14 gigawatts of
capacity this year, almost a third of the global total, as more
large-scale projects are built, BNEF said. Japan, the second-biggest solar market, increased spending 17 percent to $8.6
billion in the third quarter.
“The patterns of investment are different geographically,
with China taking more of a role and other parts of Asia coming
on strong, particularly Japan,” Ethan Zindler, a BNEF analyst
based in Washington, said in an interview yesterday. “The
makeup is really quite different compared with as recently as
2011 or 2012, when Europe accounted for a major share of the
total.”
Investment in Europe tumbled to $8.8 billion, the lowest in
more than eight years, as spending in the U.K., Italy and
Germany fell.
In the U.S., investment reached $7.3 billion from $5.7
billion on increased demand for residential- and commercial-scale solar, offsetting a volatile wind-power industry, Zindler
said.
Rooftop providers including Sungevity Inc. and Sunrun Inc.
are among renewable-energy companies receiving funding from
private equity and venture capital firms eager to capitalize on
a model popularized by Elon Musk’s SolarCity Corp. Vivint Solar
Inc., another residential installer, this week raised $330
million in an initial public offering.
“The distributed-generation market for small-scale solar
is growing at a nice, steady pace,” Zindler said. “The wind
industry definitely has more ups and downs, and the market’s on
more of a rebound after what was a very bad year last year.”
To contact the reporter on this story:
Justin Doom in New York at
jdoom1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Tina Davis, Robin Saponar