Global trends in renewable energy investment 2019

Clean energy is a cornerstone of the better future we are building for humanity. Neither the Paris Agreement nor the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be able to fulfill their full potential unless renewable energy replaces fossil fuel generation. Renewable energy avoids the greenhouse gas emissions that warm our planet. It improves air quality and therefore human health. It brings new opportunities to energy-poor communities. Investing in renewable energy is also an economic opportunity. It is a decision that investors around the world have been increasingly making for a decade. Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2019 – released ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit – shows that in 2018, investors again put hundreds of billions of dollars behind renewable energy and the energy transition we need. The latest issue of this report – which has tracked trends and opportunities in the sector since 2004 –shows that global investment in renewable energy capacity hit $272.9 billion in 2018, far outstripping investments in new fossil fuel generation. 2018 was the fifth successive year renewables capacity investment exceeded $250 billion. Yes, the 2018 global investment figures were 12% down on the previous year, but this is not a step backwards. Renewable energy, particularly solar photovoltaics, is getting cheaper. 
Looking across 2010-2019, the trend of heavy investment becomes even clearer. The report estimates that a total of $2.6 trillion will have been invested in renewable capacity (excluding large hydro) over that period. This corresponds to an estimated 1.2 terawatts of new renewable energy capacity over this decade, more than the entire electricity generating fleet of the U.S. today, and roughly quadrupling the figure of global renewables capacity commissioned at the end of 2009. Several unexpected findings emerge from the decade perspective taken in the Focus Chapter of this report. One is the meteoric rise of solar PV to become not just the biggest renewable power technology in terms of investment – onshore wind was the number one back in 2009 – but also the most added generation source of any kind during the period. 

Another has been the precipitous price fall in both solar PV and wind, and a third has been the steady improvements in efficiency of those technologies. While this demonstrates huge and lasting progress, the pace must increase. Renewables are now firmly embedded in the power generation sector, but only represent 26.3% of total electricity produced – 12.9% if we exclude large hydro. Fossil fuel subsidies, which run into the hundreds of billions of dollars each year, are slowing progress. Investors are still financing coal power plants with tens of billions of dollars each year. Equally, 1.1 billion people lack access to electricity. Providing that access to these people, through technologies such as off-grid solar, will give the Sustainable Development Goals a massive shot in the arm.
 

This year and next are crucial for climate action. The Global Climate Action Summit on September 23 provides an opportunity for everyone to come forward with new commitments. The final touches will be put on the Paris Agreement later this year. Everybody needs to raise their ambition levels, including investors. With smart policies that truly value the economic and societal benefits of renewable power, we can accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy and give people the clean energy future they deserve