Global investment up 30 per cent in a year

GLOBAL investment in renewable energy has grown 30 per cent over the past year, a conference in Edinburgh has heard.

Angus McCrone, chief editor at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, told delegates at the Scottish Low Carbon Investment Conference that the clean energy sector had seen massive growth in investment.

In 2009, £119 billion was invested globally, compared to £155bn in 2010 – representing growth of 30 per cent.

Europe invested the largest share in 2010, at £60.2bn, compared to £52.8bn from Asia and £41.9bn from the Americas.

Mr McCrone warned this showed that although Europe was still the largest investor, Asia was catching up.

Wind and solar energy dominate, attracting £60.6bn and £55bn investment in 2010.

Other types of renewable energy, such as hydro, biomass and marine represent a tiny market share in comparison. The wind sector experienced 52 per cent growth in investment between 2009 and 2010 and solar saw 30 per cent growth.

Mr McCrone highlighted that 5.4 per cent of worldwide power generation now comes from renewables, excluding large hydro schemes. Last year 34 per cent of all new gigawatts of installed power across the globe came from renewables.

He said: “This looks like another good year for clean energy investment. It could be a record, but it’s too early to tell.”

He predicted that across the world installed capacity of renewables would quadruple over the next ten years.

However, despite the positive signals from investors, Mr McCrone warned that stock market prices for clean energy had “crumbled spectacularly” during the global financial crisis – more than for other sectors.

Andrew Cave, head of group sustainability at Royal Bank of Scotland, agreed that renewables was a growth area.

“It’s one of the few areas where we are seeing genuine growth happening,” he said and he added that the bank was “very much open for business” for projects that were low risk.

Scotland has an estimated quarter of Europe’s offshore wind and tidal energy resource, and a tenth of Europe’s wave resource.

Speakers yesterday said stability was key to the future of renewables development in Scotland.

Developers needed a stable incentive scheme to give reassurance over the long term.

They needed a strong supply chain, access to the electricity grid, political support and public buy-in.

Oystein Loseth, president of Swedish firm Vattenfall, said Scotland was an attractive place to invest, but said it was a difficult time.

He said: “Vattenfall like other companies in Europe has not avoided the impact of the credit crunch.”