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Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment

Investment by Technology

In 2008, wind attracted the highest new investment ($51.8 billion), confirming its status as the most mature and best-established sustainable energy generation technology. However, investment only grew 1% from 2007 (see Figure 8). The solar sector received $33.5 billion of new investment, up 49% from 2007, followed by biofuels with $16.9 billion, a fall of 9% on the previous year. Together, these three sectors consolidated their position as the leading sustainable energy sectors, accounting for 86% of new investment, higher than in 2007 (82%) and 2006 (80%).

However, new build project financing experienced its lowest growth year in 2008, although the five year compound annual growth rate was 52%. While on-shore wind still attracts the highest volume of asset financing of all renewable energies, off-shore wind is also a growth area. (See Figure 9)


Wind’s leading position continues to be driven by asset finance (see Figure 12), as new generation capacity is added worldwide, particularly in China and the US. Newly installed capacity in 2008 reached 27GW (REN21 Renewables Global Status Update 2009)

Source: New Energy Finance; Global Trends In Sustainable Energy Investment 2009