REN21 yesterday released its annual publication, the Renewables 2010 Global Status Report, together with its twin report – UNEP’s annual Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2010. In 2009, for the second year in a row, both the US and Europe added more powerUseful energy can be mechanical energy, for example powering a fan. capacity from renewable sources such as windWind occurs due to different temperature levels in the atmosphere (troposphere) which are heated up by the sun. A typical example are the trade winds at the equator where the sun is most powerful.. and solar than conventional sources like coal, gas and nuclear, according to these reports.

RenewablesRenewable energy is power generated from infinite sources, such as wind or solar power. Conventional energy is generated from finite sources, such as natural gas or fossil oil. accounted for 60 per cent of newly installed capacity in Europe and more than 50 per cent in the USA in 2009. This year or next, experts predict, the world as a whole will add more capacity to the electricityA form of energy having magnetic, radiant and chemical effects. Electric current is created by a flow of electrons. supply from renewable than non-renewable sources.

The reports detail trends in the global green energyThe ability to perform work, mainly kinetic, potential, thermal energy, but also in forms of gravitational, sound, elastic and electromagnetic energy. sector, including which sources attracted the greatest attention from investors and governments in different world regions.

By the numbers:
In 2009 renewable sources represented:

• 25 per cent of global power (electricity) capacity (1,230 gigawatts (GW) out of 4,800 GW total all sources, including coal, gas, nuclear)
• 18 per cent of global power production
• 60 per cent of newly installed power capacity in Europe and more than 50 per cent in the US; the world as a whole should reach 50 per cent or more in newly-installed power capacity from renewables in 2010 or 2011

The major highlights of the reports (you can download the full version for free at http://www.ren21.net/globalstatusreport/g2010.asp):

• For the first time, private sector green energy investments in Asia and Oceania, some $40.8 billion in 2009, exceeded that in the Americas, at $32.3 billion.
• Private sector investment in Europe was down 10 percent at $43.7 billion.
• Major economies in 2009 began to spend some of the estimated $188 billion in global “green stimulus” programs announced in September 2008. However, at the end of 2009, only 9 percent of the money had been spent, with larger proportions expected to flow in 2010 and 2011.
• After a weak first quarter attributed to the banking crisis, sustainable energy investments rebounded in the final three quarters of last year. The new investment total of $162 billion in 2009 represented the second highest annual figure ever (after 2008) — nearly quadruple the sum invested in 2004.
• New investment of $162 billion has added an estimated 50 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energyRenewable energy is power generated from infinite sources, such as wind or solar power. Conventional energy is generated from finite sources, such as natural gas or fossil oil. generation capacity worldwide (not including hydroHydro power is electrical energy produced through the power of moving water.
  Power obtained from the (typically gravitational) movement of water.-electric). This represents a sharp rise from the 40GW added in 2008. Fifty GW is roughly the output of 75 coal-fired power plants.

Looking forward …:

• The green power sector survived the economic downturn better than many expected, with share prices rising almost 40% in 2009, reversing roughly one third of losses experienced in 2008.
• Clean energy share prices under-performed wider stock markets by around 10 percent in the first four months of 2010. Although oil prices were buoyant, prices of electricity and natural gas stayed low, cramping returns for project developers.
• Nevertheless, new clean energy investments in the first quarter of 2010 (often the most subdued quarter of the year) were up more than 50 percent on the same three months of 2009.

Let’s have a look on the sectors:

From 2005 to 2009 inclusive, the annual average rate of growth in wind powerWind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. By 2010, a single wind turbine can produce several MW of electric power. capacity was 27 percent; solar hot waterHot water for domestic use and swimming pools. 21 percent rate; ethanolEthanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. Ethanol is abbreviated as EtOH, using the common organic chemistry notation of representing the ethyl group (C2H5) with Et.
Bioethanol is a readily available, ... production 20 percent and biodieselA biodegradable transportation fuel for use in diesel engines that is produced through the transesterification of organically- derived oils or fats. It may be used either as a replacement for or as a component of diesel fuel.
Biodiesel is a biosynthetic fuel with similar properties as ... production 51 percent. The use of biomassEnergy resources derived from organic matter. These include wood, agricultural waste and other living-cell material that can be burned to produce heat energy. They also include algae, sewage and other organic substances that may be used to make energy through chemical processes.
Biomass, a ... and geothermalAlso known as geothermal power. Heat that is stored inside the earth is transformed into electrical energy by geothermal power plants. This form of energy is considered to be cost-effective, reliable and friendly to the environement. for power and heatHeat is a form of energy. Ways to convert it into useful energy are described in the field of thermo-dynamics. also grew strongly.

Wind:

• Wind was even more dominant as a destination for investment in 2009 than 2008.
• In 2008, it accounted for $59 billion or 45 percent of all financial investment in sustainable energy; in 2009, it accounted for $67 billion and its share rose to 56 percent.
• Wind power additions reached a record high of 38 GW, 13.8 GW of which was installed in China, 10 GW in the US, and 2.5 GW in Spain.
• Wind power existed in just a handful of countries in the 1990s, but now exists in over 82 countries.

Solar:

• Total global investment in solar PV reached a record $40 billion in 2009.
• GridA grid is a network of transmission lines, usually to distribute electric power .-connected solar powerPhotovoltaics (PV) is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells for energy by converting sunlight directly into electricity. Solar power is sometimes used as a synonym to refer to electricity generated from solar radiation. has grown by an average of 60 percent every year for the past decade, from 0.2 GW at the start of 2000 to 21 GW at the end of 2009.
• The year 2009 was very different for large-scale (utility-scale) solar however, suffering a 27 percent fall in financial investment in the year, to $24 billion.
• The sharp decline links to several factors, including falling prices, a sudden over-supply of photo-voltaic products, new caution on the part of investors towards equityEquity is the concept or idea of fairness in economics, particularly as to taxation or welfare economics. in young solar companies, a shortage of bank financing for projects in Europe and North America and a temporary freeze on permits for new capacity in Spain, the most active solar market in 2008.
• Solar PV additions nevertheless reached a record high of 7 GW in 2009. Germany was the top market, with 3.8 GW added, or more than half the global market. Other large markets were Italy, Japan, the United States, the Czech Republic, and Belgium. Spain, the world leader in 2008, saw installations plunge to a low level in 2009 after a policy cap was exceeded.
• In 2009, China produced 40 percent of the world’s solar PV supply, 25 percent of the world’s wind turbinesA wind turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from the flow of wind. The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft with blades attached. Wind energy acts on the blades, or the blades react to wind, so that they rotate and impart energy to the rotor. ... (up from 10 percent in 2007), and 77 percent of the world’s solar hot water collectors.
• Power produced by solar PV dropped in price some 50 to 60 percent by some estimates — from highs of $3.50 per watt in mid-2008, to lows approaching $2 per watt.
• An estimated 70 million households worldwide now employ solar hot water heating.

Bio fuels:

• BiofuelsLiquid fuels and blending components produced from biomass (plant) feedstocks, used primarily for transportation.
  Bio fuels are liquid fuels that are produced of plant material or herbal remains., which ranked third after wind and solar in 2008 with $18 billion of financial investment, ended up fourth last year with just $7 billion. Biomass and wasteWaste consists of unwanted and thrown away goods that often still have value as fuel or raw material.-to-energy, which was fourth in 2008 with $9 billion, moved up to third in 2009 with $11 billion.
• Biofuels displaced the energy equivalent of 8 percent of global gasoline consumption.
• Latin America is seeing many new biofuels producers in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, as well as expansion in many other renewable technologies.
• Investment in new biofuels plants also declined from 2008 rates, as corn ethanol production capacity was not fully utilized in the United States and several firms went bankrupt. The Brazilian sugar ethanol industry likewise faced economic troubles, with no growth despite ongoing expansion plans. Europe faced similar softening in biodiesel, with production capacity only half utilized.

Geothermal:
Geothermal suffered a 29 percent drop in financial investment in 2009, to $2 billion.

Energy EfficiencyUsing less energy/electricity to perform the same function. Programs designed to use electricity more efficiently - doing the same with less.:
Energy-smart technologies such as power storage and efficiencyUsing less energy/electricity to perform the same function. Programs designed to use electricity more efficiently - doing the same with less. saw a 34 percent rise in investment, to $4 billion. For the first time, energy-smart technologies attracted more venture capital and private equity investment than any other clean energy sector.

To finish this post, I wanted to add some interesting statements regarding this reports:

Mr. Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director said: “The sustainable energy investment story of 2009 was one of resilience, frustration and determination. Resilience to the financial downturn that was hitting all sectors of the global economy and frustration that, while the UNThe United Nations Organization (UNO) is an international organization that focuses on facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. It was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace ... climateClimate is typically defined as the average weather (or more rigorously a statistical description of the average in terms of the mean and variability) over a period of time, usually 30 years. These quantities are most often surface variables such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate ... convention meeting in Copenhagen was not the big breakdown that might have occurred, neither was it the big breakthrough so many had hoped for. Yet there was determination on the part of many industry actors and governments, especially in rapidly developing economies, to transform the financial and economic crisis into an opportunity for greener growth.”

“There remains however a serious gap between the ambition and the science in terms of where the world needs to be in 2020 to avoid dangerous climate changeClimate change is a lasting change in weather patterns over long periods of time. It can be a natural phenomena and and has occurred on Earth even before people inhabited it. Quite different is a current situation that is also referred to as climate change, anthropogenic climate change, or .... But what this five years of research underlines is that this gap is not unbridgeable. Indeed, renewable energy is consistently and persistently bucking the trends and can play its part in realizing a low carbon, resource efficient Green EconomyA green economy is a economy or economic development model based on sustainable development and a knowledge of ecological economics if government policy sends ever harder market signals to investors” he added.

Mr El-Ashry, Chair of REN21 said: “Favorable policies now in place in more than 100 countries have played a critical role in the strength of global renewable energy investments recently. For the upward trend of renewable energy growth to continue, policy efforts now need to be taken to the next level and encourage a massive scale up of renewable tech nologies.”

Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance stated: “The relatively resilient performance of the sector during the current economic downturn shows that clean energy was not a bubble created by the late stages of the credit boom, but is instead an investment theme that will remain important for the years ahead.”