Asia Leads Renewable Energy Investments

As the decade comes to an end and a new one begins, Asian countries have established themselves as the driving forces in renewable energy.

According to a recent report released by The Pew Charitable Trusts, investment in renewable energy is being led by Asia, especially China and India. Altogether, clean power projects carried within the G-20’s jurisdiction may reach US$2.3 trillion by the end of the decade, the report projects, having based its calculations on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data.

Asia is leading because of its strong clean energy policies. China, India, Japan and South Korea, the region’s clean energy powerhouses, will account for 40 per cent of global clean power project investments by 2020.

China

China will remain the leader under all three scenarios the report used as models (Business-as usual, Copenhagen, and Enhanced Clean Energy). The Asian giant has the potential to attract a total of US$620 billion over the next decade.

Recent figures confirm what the The Pew report estimates. In 2009, China invested US$30 billion in clean energy. It accounted for 50 per cent of all investments in wind energy in 2010, or US$13.5 billion.

Driving these impressive figures is the country’s unwavering adoption of sustainable development strategies and acknowledgement of of the necessity to shift the economic development model. The country sees clean development as an essential part of social development.

India

India has also become stronger due to solid clean energy policies and will rank third by 2020 under all the models employed by The Pew report. This represents a huge leap, since in 2009 it was projected to be number ten.

The country is expected to attract $169 billion in clean energy projects over the next decade. Its renewable energy generating capacity may grow to 91GW, or five times from what is currently installed.

Antonio Pasolini writes about alternative energy for Energyrefuge.com.