Investments in Renewable Energy Technologies decrease in 2013
London/ New York
The third quarter data showed weakness almost across the board, with investment in China, the US and Europe all down on the equivalent period of 2012, the only region to show a rise in activity on both the quarter and the year being the Americas outside the US and Brazil, thanks to firm figures from Canada, Chile and Uruguay.
The main crumb of comfort in the figures is that installation of solar photovoltaic power capacity worldwide is set to hit a new record in 2013 - at some 36.7 gigawatt (GW). But much reduced costs per megawatt (MW) mean that the dollars invested in that new capacity will almost certainly be below the equivalent for last year.
Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, commented: "After the slightly more promising second quarter, we now have a very disappointing third quarter figure for investment. 45.9 billion USD is still a substantial amount of money, greater than that invested in the whole of 2004, but the loss of momentum since 2011 is worrying.
"The latest setback reflects policy uncertainty in Europe, the lure of cheap gas in the US, a levelling-off in wind and solar investment in China, and a general weakening of political will in major economies. Governments accept that the world has a major problem with climate change but, for the moment, appear too engrossed in short-term domestic issues to take the decisive action needed."
There continues to be a contrast between overall investment data, which have faltered, and the recent performance of clean energy shares on stock markets around the world. Measured by the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index, or NEX, which tracks 96 quoted companies worldwide, clean energy shares on 9 October were standing nearly 47 per cent up on the year so far and 74 per cent above their lows reached in late July 2012.
The detail of the third quarter investment data shows that asset finance of utility-scale (1MW-plus) renewable energy projects was 26.4 billion USD, down from 31.9 billion USD in the second quarter of this year and 34.8 billion in third quarter 2012. Notable deals included the financing of 182MW AGL Nyngan & Broken Hill PV Portfolio in Australia for 406.4 million USD and 50MW Shenzhen Jinfan Energy Technology Akesai Aletangxiang solar thermal plant in China for 314 million USD.
Venture capital and private equity investment in specialist clean energy companies was notably weak in the quarter to September. It totalled just 724 million USD, compared to 1.3 billion USD in second quarter and 1.1 billion USD in the third quarter of last year. It was in fact the weakest quarter for VC/PE in the sector since 2005. The biggest deal of the quarter was the 50 million USD fundraising by Massachusetts-based biofuels technology developer Joule Unlimited.
Investment in small-scale capacity of less than 1MW - predominantly rooftop solar on homes and business buildings - was much more resilient, at 17 billion USD in third quarter, level with the previous quarter and below third quarter 2012's 20.1 billion USD only because the cost of PV panels has come down so sharply.
Also showing a respectable performance was investment in clean energy companies via the public markets, at 2 billion USD in the third quarter. This was down from a very strong 3.8 billion USD in the second quarter of this year but was above the 1.6 billion USD of third quarter 2012. The biggest deal of the quarter was The Renewables Infrastructure Group
Source: IWR Online, 15 Oct 2013
