A new report suggests power is shifting from industrialized countries to developing nations – at least when it comes to clean energy initiatives. In fact, countries outside of the Group of 20 attracted more than $60 billion in clean energy investment between 2009 and 2013.
"Developing countries are prioritizing solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources in order to reduce energy poverty, power economic progress, enhance national security by reducing imports, and protect the environment," said Phylis Cuttino, director of Pew Charitable Trusts` clean energy initiative, which recently published a report titled Power Shifts – Emerging Clean Energy Markets.
According to the report, there are 10 noteworthy markets where clean energy is being embraced at a rapid pace. Many of these countries offer incentives ranging from grants and loans to reduced tax rates. They account for nearly half ($27.9 billion) of the $60 billion in clean energy investment. Those nations include, in descending order:
- Thailand
- Bulgaria
- Ukraine
- Kenya
- Peru
- Taiwan
- China
- Morocco
- Vietnam
- Pakistan
- the Philippines
One of the biggest complaints against clean energy technologies is that they aren’t as efficient as traditional energy models. That might have been the case 20 or even 10 years ago, but things are certainly starting to change, at least for solar energy. The highest efficiency solar cells are about 40 percent efficient – a far stretch from their original rate. However, they are not available commercially at the moment. Still, it’s becoming more common to find solar cells in the 15 to 20 percent efficiency range.
Solar technologies were among the most sought-after clean energy investments, drawing an impressive $12 billion in the 10 developing countries. Meanwhile, wind-based technologies drew $7.7 billion between 2009 and 2013. The report found three countries led in terms of wind power investment: Pakistan ($1.6 billion), Bulgaria ($1.4 billion), and Ukraine ($1.2 billion).
Eight of the 10 aforementioned countries installed wind energy (a total of 1.8 gigawatts), while six installed solar (totalling 3 gigawatts). As for other energy strategies; Vietnam showed significant growth in hydropower, investing $1.2 billion in the technology. And almost all new geothermal plants were constructed in Kenya.
The Pew study concludes that developing countries will make up the majority of power capacity growth in the next 15 years, and that renewables will likely account for a significant portion of that (approximately 54 percent). It echoes a similar Climatescope report that came out in 2014 which suggested developing countries were investing in clean energy at twice the pace of industrialized nations.
“Clean energy is the low-cost option in a lot of these countries,” Ethan Zindler, an analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance (one of Climatescope’s developers), said. “The technologies are cost-competitive right now. Not in the future, but right now.”
According to the report, the idea that clean energy technologies are unattainable to developing countries solely because of their cost is false. “[G]reen technologies have come a long way, and clean energy technologies are no longer out of reach for developing countries, which are home to some of the most extraordinary wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, large and small hydro and other natural resources,” read the report’s summary.
The study adds: “In the least developed nations, where hundreds of millions of people have little or no access to electricity, cleaner energy as a distributed source of power is often the obvious choice over extending traditional hub-and-spoke transmission networks or local diesel generators.”
To read the full Pew report, click here. To read the Climatescope study, click here.