Global solar, wind growing despite shrinking investments

August 1, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

Although hydropower remains the world's leading renewable energy, solar and wind continue to dominate investment in new renewable capacity and are quickly becoming the highest-profile renewable energy sources, according to Worldwatch Institute.

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Global use of solar and wind energy continued to grow significantly in 2012 even with declining investments (down 11 and 10 percent, respectively, from 2011). Solar power consumption increased by 58 percent to 93 TWh; wind power increased by 18 percent to 521 TWh. Global investment in solar energy in 2012 was $140.4 billion; wind investment was $80.3 billion, but due to lower costs for both technologies, total installed capacities grew sharply, according to WorldWatch.

Solar PV installed capacity grew by 41 percent in 2012 to 100 GW. Over the past five years alone, installed PV capacity grew by 900 percent from 10 GW in 2007. The countries with the most installed PV capacity are Germany (32.4 GW), Italy (16.4 GW), the United States (7.2 GW), and China (7.0 GW), according to WorldWatch.

The United States was the world's top wind market in 2012 with overall capacity increasing 28 percent, at which time, the U.S. added 13.1 GW -- double the amount it added in 2011. Increased domestic manufacturing of wind turbine parts, improved technological efficiency, and lower costs helped spur this increase, but the greatest catalyst was the threat of expiration of the federal Production Tax Credit which provides tax credits for kilowatt-hours produced by wind turbines, the research explains.

"Although policy uncertainties and changes will likely challenge the growth of solar and wind in the future, these technologies are nonetheless well poised to grow," said Matt Lucky, report co-author and sustainable energy lead researcher at Worldwatch. "Declining solar technology prices, while challenging for current manufacturers, are helping solar to reach near grid-parity in many markets. With the decreasing cost of operating and maintaining wind farms, wind power is already cost competitive with conventional power energy sources in many markets."

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