Following a summer lull in Europe and a significant slowdown in Asia, global clean energy investment in the third quarter of 2016 is down 43% compared to the same period last year, finds a new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
The Q3 data shows that $42.4 billion was invested globally in renewable energy and smart technologies during the period, but that figure was some way below last years Q3 and also down sequentially, tumbling 31% on Q2 2016.
This weakness, says BNEF, was concentrated on a handful of areas. Most notable was a 49% decrease in asset finance for utility-scale renewable energy projects, with investment slumping to $28.8 billion. Of that figure, spending in large-scale solar was down a massive 67% as policy changes in China and Japan served to suppress funding in these segments. Europe, too, also saw a sharp tail off in large-scale solar PV investment in Q3.
However, investment in small scale solar (projects less than 1 MW) was also down, falling 35% compared to Q3 2015 to just $9.3 billion. By country, China saw one of the largest slumps in renewables investment, registering $14.4 billion in Q3 a 51% tumble in the space of a year with Japans $3.5 billion figure some 56% below 2015s Q3 investments.
According to BNEF chairman of the advisory board Michael Liebrich, these seemingly alarming figures can largely be explained by two converging trends: the record-low cost of solar PV components, and the comparison to last years investment rush, which have seemingly triggered this years pause for breath.
"A vital point to bear in mind is that there have been sharp reductions in the cost of PV systems, so that much more solar capacity can be added this year than last, per million dollars," said Liebrich. "However, it is also clear that, after last years record investment levels, some key markets such as China and Japan are pausing for a deep breath."
Liebrich added that electricity demand growth in many countries is also undershooting government forecasts, leading to Q3s figures to look primed to settle somewhere in between "the new normal" and a "flash crash" blip.
The BNEF report also stated that Q3s figure – $42.4 billion was the weakest quarterly investment volume since Q1 2013 registered just $41.8 billion. By way of contrast, Q2 2015 saw the highest quarterly total ever invested in clean energy a massive $90 billion globally.
The analysts stress that Q3s figures could be revised upwards in due course if more transactions come to light, but warned that 2016s Q1 and Q2 trends already point to a 23% year-on-year drop in global investments, making it increasingly likely that this year will see far less invested than 2015s record amount of $348.5 billion.
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.