Renewable investment rebounds, but challenges remain

The past year has seen a resurgence in investment for renewable energy technologies despite the drop in oil prices, according to a report prepared by two financial organisations which study the sector. The report, from the Frankfurt School – United Nations Environment Programme collaborating centre for Climate and Sustainable Energy Finance, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, states that global investment in renewable energy investment climbed by 17 per cent in 2014 to $270bn after two consecutive years of declines.

The report notes that sharp declines in the cost of renewable technologies, most markedly in solar but also in wind, meant that every dollar invested bought more generating capacity. The capacity added in 2014 amounts to 103GW, compared with 86GW in 2013, 89GW in 2012 and 81GW in 2011.

The capacity installed included wind, solar, waste-to-power, geothermal, small hydro and marine. If this capacity had been installed as conventional fossil fuel-fired generation, global carbon emissions would have been 1.3gigatonnes of CO₂ higher, the report says.