Q1 2015 clean energy investment down

Global investment in clean energy technology fell by 15% year over year during the first quarter of 2015 to about $50.5 billion, the lowest level since the $43.1 billion invested in the first quarter of 2013, according to new research conducted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (London, U.K.). Bloomberg NEF attributes the first quarter drop to a decline in investment in wind and utility-scale projects and to a rising value of the U.S. dollar. The drop in oil prices since mid-2014, however, appears not to have been a major factor in the decline in clean energy investment, according to Michael Liebreich, chairman of Bloomberg NEF’s advisory board. In a statement, Liebreich also noted that, discounting the effects of currency valuations and some investments in large offshore wind farms in 2014, investment in clean energy “this year would have been pretty much level-pegging with last year.” China’s clean-energy investment during the first quarter of 2015 fell by 24% to $11 billion year over year, while investment in Europe dropped by 30% to $9.7 billion and investment in Brazil fell by 62% to $1.1 billion. Clean-energy investment in the United States inched up by 2% to $9.6 billion, while investment in India rose 59% to $1.6 billion.
In the United States, the actual construction of wind farms and utility-scale solar projects is moving ahead at full speed, spurred by the imminent expiration of federal tax credits, Engineering News-Record reported on April 8. The decreasing cost of wind and solar power is also a factor in potentially making 2015 the best year ever for wind farm and utility-scale solar construction. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power is also spurring accelerated development of energy storage projects, ENR reported. As of the beginning of 2015, about 12,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power projects were underway in the United States, taking advantage of a production tax credit (PTC) of $23 per megawatt-hour for the first 10 years of a facility’s output—a tax credit that was extended but only for projects on which construction had started by the end of 2014. ENR reported that about 4,800 MW of utility-scale solar power capacity is expected to come on line in 2015, surpassing the 3,900 MW of capacity that was added in 2014.