In the first half of 2022, investments in renewables reached 226 billion $
(Sustainabilityenvironment.com) – Despite the problems of supply chains, investments in renewables have reached a new record: in the first 6 months of 2022 they reached the figure of 226 billion dollars globally, +11% on 2021. Driving the race of fer is the intersection between climate crisis and energy crisis. This is supported by the report Renewable Energy Investment Tracker 2H 2022 published by BloombergNEF.
Solar dominates investments in renewables
The first half of the year saw solar once again dominate investments in renewable energy in the world. Both in absolute terms and considering the relative increase year on year. Counting both investments in large and small scale projects, the total collected from energy from the sun is the record figure of 120 billion dollars. 33% more than the same period in 2021.
Wind power also gets good results. The total of catalyzed investments in the first 6 months of the year stops at 84 billion, which corresponds to an increase of 16% compared to the first half of last year.
Investment in other sectors, such as biomass, waste-to-energy and small hydropower plants, has decreased.
“Policy makers are increasingly recognising that renewable energies are the key to unlocking energy security goals and reducing dependence on volatile energy raw materials,” comments Albert Cheung, head of analysis at BloombergNEF. “Despite the headwinds of continued cost inflation and supply chain challenges, the demand for clean energy sources has never been so high and we expect that the global energy crisis will continue to act as an accelerator of the clean energy transition”.
China and Asia-Pacific confirmed their target markets
Behind the record volumes of investments in renewables there is a growth of capital mobilized in China. This is a dizzying growth that, for solar, went from 15 billion dollars in the first half of 2021 to 41 billion this year: a resounding +173%. The second most dynamic market is the United States, which has invested 5 times and a half less than Beijing with just 7.5 billion dollars. Japan was third with 3.9 billion.
The region of the Asia-Pacific, on the other hand, harnessed more energy from the wind in the first half of 2022. Out of a global total of 124.5 billion this region is close to 50% with 66.8 billion, +72% on 2021. Also in this case it is always China to play the greater role with 57.8 billion, a volume of investments in wind energy that is almost triple that of the USA.
