Renewables outstrip fossil fuels

Australian
Monday 15/6/2009 Page: 25

GLOBAL investment in new power generation from renewable energy sources surpassed that in fossil fuel related energy sources for the first time in 2008, according to a report by the UN Energy Program and market analysts New Energy Finance.

The report puts investment in new power generation capacity from renewable energy technologies at $US140bn, compared with $US110bn in fossil fuel technologies, although renewable energy still accounted for only 6.2% of the global generation mix.

A total of $US155bn was invested in companies and projects globally in 2008. While the growth rate slumped to just 5% compared with more than 50% in the previous year, it still represented an increase, whereas investment in almost all other sectors fell dramatically for the year.

However, capital raised via the public stockmarkets for equipment manufacturing and project pipelines fell 51% to $US11.4bn, mostly as a result of the slumping values of clean energy share prices, which lost 61% of their value during 2008.