Global Clean-Energy Investment Down 15%

Global investment in clean energy was $50.5bn in the first quarter of 2015, down 15% from Q1 2014.

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Q1 figures show that investment in Europe slipped 30% compared to first quarter 2014, to $9.7bn, while that in China fell 24% to $11bn. Investment in the US edged up 2% to $9.6bn, but Brazil slid 62% to $1.1bn and the rest of the Americas dropped 17% to $2bn. The strongest performance came from South Africa, where investment in Q1 surged to $3.1bn from almost nothing in the same quarter a year earlier.

Financings of wind projects and public market equity raisings by clean energy companies were particularly subdued, although there were some bright spots, including small-scale solar worldwide and renewable energy project investment in South Africa.

Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, commented: “The big question, of course, is whether and how hard clean energy investment would be hit by the slump in oil and gas prices. These figures indicate the answer is not so much.

“We said in January that we thought 2015 would struggle to match last year’s dollar investment total, because of exchange rate moves. The US currency has strengthened 15% against a basket of currencies in the past year, and 29% against the euro. There were also a few more lumpy offshore wind investments in Q1 2014 than in Q1 2015. Without those factors, investment in Q1 this year would have been pretty much level-pegging with last year.”

Looking in turn at the different types of investment, asset finance of utility-scale renewable energy projects fell 19% in Q1 from a year earlier, to hit $27.9bn. The largest asset finance deals included $1.3bn for Germany’s 322MW Nordsee One offshore wind project, $888m for the 100MW Xina Solar One solar thermal complex in South Africa and $427m for the 300MW Apex Kay wind farm in Oklahoma, US. Investment in small distributed capacity (principally rooftop photovoltaics) rose 11% in Q1 2015 compared to year earlier, reaching $20.3bn, with Japan, the US and China the most active markets.

By sector, the Q1 2015 investment figures show solar up 7% from a year earlier, at $31.8bn, wind down 30% at $15.1bn, biomass and waste-to-energy up 94% at $1.7bn, and biofuels down 64% at $447m. Investment in energy smart technology companies slumped 91% to $281m.