• curiouscat.com
  • About
  • Books
  • Glossary

    Categories

    • All
    • carnival (41)
    • chart (8)
    • Cool (35)
    • Credit Cards (45)
    • economic data (62)
    • Economics (439)
    • economy (126)
    • Financial Literacy (292)
    • Investing (324)
    • Personal finance (356)
    • Popular (43)
    • quote (194)
    • Real Estate (120)
    • Retirement (65)
    • Saving (90)
    • Stocks (158)
    • Taxes (51)
    • Tips (129)
    • Travel (7)

    Tags

    Asia banking bonds capitalism chart China commentary consumer debt Credit Cards credit crisis curiouscat debt economic data Economics economy employment energy entrepreneur Europe Financial Literacy government health care housing India interest rates Investing Japan John Hunter manufacturing markets micro-finance mortgage Personal finance Popular quote Real Estate regulation Retirement save money Saving spending money Stocks Taxes Tips USA

    Recently Posts

    • New Health Care Insurance Subsidies in the USA
    • Individual Stock Portfolio Investment Planning
    • Finding Great Investments Keeps Getting Harder
    • Huge Growth in USA Corporate Debt from 2005 to 2020
    • Retirement Portfolio Allocation for 2020
    • Tencent Gaming
    • Tucows: Building 3 Businesses With Strong Positive Cash Flow
    • The 20 Most Valuable Companies in the World – Jan 2019
    • 20 Most Popular Posts on the Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog in 2018
    • An Inverted Yield Curve Predicts Recessions in the USA
  • Blogroll

    • Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog
    • Freakonomics
    • I Will Teach You to be Rich
    • Jubak Picks
  • Links

    • Articles on Investing
    • fool.com
    • Investing Books
    • Investment Dictionary
    • Leading Investors
    • Marketplace
    • Trickle Up
  • Subscribe

    • RSS Feed

    Curious Cat Kivans

    • Making a Difference

Investing and Economics Blog

Top Countries For Renewable Energy Capacity

I believe it is wise from an environmental and economic viewpoint to invest in renewable energy projects. I believe the costs of fossil fuel based energy will continue to increase. Renewable energy is continuing to improve and when considering the negative externalities caused by oil, gas and coal and the continuing improvement in wind, solar and geothermal generation investment in renewable energy are going to payoff well for countries.

Top countries for installed renewable energy capacity
Rank Country Capacity (GigaWatts)
1 China 103.4
2 USA 58.0
3 Germany 48.9
4 Spain 27.8
5 Japan 26.0
6 India 18.7
7 Italy 16.7
8 Brazil 13.8
9 France 9.6

The largest increases in renewable energy capacity by country from 2005 to 2010 are: China (up 106%), South Korea (up 88%), Turkey (up 85%), Germany (up 67%), Italy and Japan (up 45%). All the data is from the Pew Clean Engery Program report: Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race? (pdf).

In 2010, [China] accounted for almost 50 percent of global clean energy superpower. The nation’s all manufacturing of solar modules and wind ascendance has been steady and steep. In turbines. China’s installation of less than 1 GW of 2005, China attracted less than $3 billion worth of private investments in clean energy. In 2009, solar energy capacity demonstrates that most of its production is for export markets. In contrast, 17 GW of wind energy was installed in China in 2010 helping the nation move quickly toward its 2020 target for installing 150 GW of wind. In fact, China accounted for 47 percent of all wind energy investments globally, with $45 billion tallied. Similarly, China led the world in asset financing, with $47.3 billion in private investments directed toward installation of clean energy generating capacity.
…
India is poised to take a leadership role in the solar sector, with a target of deploying 20 GW by 2020. In 2010, the country set about getting its National Solar Mission in place by permitting 0.5 GW worth of large solar thermal capacity and a modest 150 MW worth of photovoltaic (PV) solar.

My guess is that the stimulus packages in several countries contributed greatly to the increases (notably Germany and Italy targeted green investments – as did China to some extent, in Wind Energy). Spain took a hit as debt levels caused the government to cut spending. I would imagine this is likely to happen in Italy (and was expected to happen in Germany – the extent of decreases is less certain after the earthquake in Japan).

Related: Chart of oil consumption by country from 1990-2009 – Wind Power Capacity Up 170% Worldwide from 2005-2009 – Japan to Add Personal Solar Subsidies (2008) – Chart of Top Nuclear Power Generating Countries from 1985 to 2009 – Wind Power has the Potential to Produce 20% of Electricity Supply by 2030

2010 Rank Country % of GDP 2010 Investment (billions of $USD) 2009 Investment Increase
1 China .55% 54.4 39.1 28%
2 Germany 1.4% 41.2 20.6 100%
3 USA .23% 34.0 22.5 34%
4 Italy .79% 13.9 6.2 124%
5 Brazil .35% 7.6 7.7 -1%
6 Canada .42% 5.6 3.5 60%
7 Spain .35% 4.9 10.5 -53%
8 France .15% 4.0 3.2 25%
9 India 4.0 3.2 25%

Public and private investments in research and development (R&D) totaling about $35 billion in 2010 are not
included in the totals above. The key investment categories are asset financing (investing in renewable energy projects), small scale and residential projects and equity financing of companies (including venture capital).

I especially believe developing countries would be wise to invest in renewable energy projects. One area I would really like to see tried is micro-financing type support for small scale solar and wind power generation to reach remote areas.

March 30th, 2011 John Hunter | 7 Comments | Tags: economy, Investing, quote

Comments

7 Comments so far

  1. Andrew Lowry on April 2, 2011 10:38 pm

    Thank-you for the interesting post. I took a scan through the PEW report. Interesting. It is unfortunate that they rate by capacity rather than GWH production which would show how effective the installed capacity is doing. Also it would interesting to see the % of overall installed capacity versus the other all generation mix. China is building lots of coal and gas and nuclear at the same time. I note in the Pew Report that Small Hydro seems to get reference only in the country pages. China, page 26 & 34, produced the majority of the clean energy gains from small hydro (56 out of 103 GW) which is not surprising for a large country that is industrializing. The country tables showing the investment with the energy types on the same page. It shows the much lower investment required for biomass and geothermal than wind and then the huge jump in investment cost for solar. Need to get the energy capture rate greatly increased on solar. Again interesting stuff I just wish the report said a bit more about how this all fits into the bigger picture.

  2. Evan on April 5, 2011 3:05 pm

    I have absolutely no knowledge in this area, but maybe you can help me out. We have had solar power for 30 or so years…why hasn’t it is grew exponentially like every other technology!?

  3. John Hunter on April 5, 2011 7:16 pm

    Technology based on micro-circuitry that we see in our everyday lives grows explosively. There is plenty of technology that isn’t deployed yet in large amounts that seems to always be a decade or two or three away. Solar and high volume wind power have been in this second state for awhile now. Both are approaching the point where they are improving dramatically but there are two big problems now (the technologies for each has reached very good economic conditions on their own merits). The infrastructure of our power systems for the country is not designed to take advantage of this technology and battery storage is still not great (improving dramatically but still quite a bit is needed).

    My guess is we will see solar exploding in use over the next 2 decades worldwide. The main constraint in the USA will be the existing infrastructure not allowing bi-directional power easily (so we can’t give excess power generated back to the system). If battery power has huge breakthroughs that will accelerate the adoption of solar greatly.

    Alternative solar will also explode. Things like: solar thermal – Molten Salt Solar – solar dish.

  4. Largest Petroleum Consuming Countries from 1980 to 2010 at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog on September 6, 2011 11:39 pm

    From 1980 to 2010 the global consumption increased 38% to 87 million barrels a day. In the same period, USA consumption increased 12%. Meanwhile, Germany, Japan and France decreased petroleum use by 19%, 17% and 10% respectively.

  5. Global Wind Energy Capacity Exceeds 2.5% of Global Electricity Needs at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog on December 7, 2011 4:11 am

    In 2007 wind energy capacity reached 1% of global electricity needs. In just 4 years wind energy capacity has grown to reach 2.5% of global electricity demand. And by the end of 2011 it will be close to 3%…

  6. Solar Power Market Solutions For Hundreds of Millions Without Electricity at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog on March 4, 2012 6:56 pm

    400 million people in India and 1.2 billion people worldwide do not have electric power at home. Mera Gao Power provides a wonderful market solution…

  7. Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog on June 29, 2012 5:14 pm

    Total investment in solar in 2011 increased 52% to $147 billion, driven by a drop of 50% in photovoltaic module prices. Investment in wind dropped 12% to $84 billion, while onshore wind turbine prices fell between 5 and 10%…

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

« Earning More Money
USA Adds 216,00 Jobs in March and the Unemployment Rate Stands at 8.8% »
Copyright © Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog

    Personal Finance

    • Credit Card Tips
    • IRAs
    • Investment Risks
    • Loan Terms
    • Saving for Retirement
  • Archives

      All Posts
    • March 2021
    • January 2021
    • August 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • May 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • August 2018
    • May 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • June 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • August 2011
    • July 2011
    • June 2011
    • May 2011
    • April 2011
    • March 2011
    • February 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • November 2010
    • October 2010
    • September 2010
    • August 2010
    • July 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • October 2009
    • September 2009
    • August 2009
    • July 2009
    • June 2009
    • May 2009
    • April 2009
    • March 2009
    • February 2009
    • January 2009
    • December 2008
    • November 2008
    • October 2008
    • September 2008
    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • May 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • February 2008
    • January 2008
    • December 2007
    • November 2007
    • October 2007
    • September 2007
    • August 2007
    • July 2007
    • June 2007
    • May 2007
    • April 2007
    • March 2007
    • February 2007
    • January 2007
    • December 2006
    • November 2006
    • October 2006
    • April 2006
    • March 2006
    • January 2006
    • December 2005
    • October 2005
    • July 2005
    • May 2005
    • April 2005
    • April 2004