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Top Countries For Renewable Energy Capacity

Written by

John Hunter

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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.

Comments

7 responses to “Top Countries For Renewable Energy Capacity”

  1. Andrew Lowry Avatar
    Andrew Lowry

    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.

    Reply
  2. Evan Avatar
    Evan

    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!?

    Reply
  3. John Hunter Avatar
    John Hunter

    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.

    Reply
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