Last week the report ‘Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2018’ from UN Environment, the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Center and Bloomberg New Energy Finance was published. The report generated some remarkable conclusions.

In 2017, no less than 98 GW of new solar capacity was put into operation wordwide. This is a new record for the PV-sector. In addidtion, energy from solar panels exceeded any other technology, whether renewable, nuclear or fossil-based.

There also was a massive investment in solar energy, namely 130.8 billion euros. Of the 228 billion euros pumped into the renewable energy sector, no less than 57% went to the solar panel sector. This means that investments in solar energy not only exceed all other renewable energy technologies, but also investments in new gas and coal plants (together 84 billion euros).

Decreasing costs of solar energy

As an explanation for the impressive figures, the report refers to the decreasing costs for the production of solar energy. “The world has gained more solar energy than energy from coal, gas and nuclear power plants together”, says Nils Stieglitz, chairman of the Frankfurt SChool of Finance & Management. “This shows the direction we are taking with the world, yet renewable energy sources are still far from producing most of the electricity. In other words, we still have a long way to go”, concludes Stiegligtz.

Source: VRTNWS, 5 april 2018