Global Renewables Investment Goes Down

The first half of 2019 saw a 14% decrease in global renewable energy investment compared to H1 2018, according to the latest report from BloombergNEF (BNEF).

The H1 2019 global investment in renewables amounted to USD 117.6 billion, said to be mainly caused by the plunge in activity in China as it shifts away from government-set tariffs to auctions for new wind and solar capacity.

China, the world’s biggest market, saw a 39% slowdown in renewable energy investment to USD 28.8 billion, the lowest figure for any half-year period since 2013, BNEF reported.

In Taiwan, the 640MW Yunlin and 900MW Greater Changhua offshore wind projects contributed to the global clean energy investment with an estimated combined cost of USD 5.7 billion.

“The slowdown in investment in China is real, but the figures for first-half 2019 probably overstate its severity. We expect a nationwide solar auction happening now to lead to a rush of new PV project financings. We could also see several big deals in offshore wind in the second half,” said Justin Wu, Head of Asia-Pacific for BNEF.

Besides China, Europe showed a 4% decrease at USD 22.2 billion compared to the first half of 2018. France was down 75% at USD 567 million, Germany down 42% at USD 2.1 billion and the Netherlands was 41% lower at USD 2.2 billion.

The UK was up 35% at USD 2.5 billion, while Japan attracted USD 8.7 billion of investment, which is up by 3%.

Breaking global clean energy investment down by type of transaction, asset finance of utility-scale generation projects such as wind farms and solar parks was down 24% at USD 85.6 billion, largely due to the China factor, BNEF said.