According to a recent article by Bloomberg’s Jess Shankleman, investments in clean energy fell 17 percent during 1Q 2017. In fact, “the $53.6 billion funneled into projects such as renewable energy, efficiency and electric cars during the first three months of the year marked the lowest investment for the quarter since 2013,” according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, adding that a “surge in financing for large offshore wind projects at the start of last year wasn’t repeated in 2017.”
Absent a shift for the U.S. from federal to state-level incentives, these types of projects will be competing on the more level sort of playing field opponents to solar and wind subsidies have been seeking. Specifically, the report states that “governments in the biggest markets for renewables are slashing subsidies for new projects, reflecting a plunge in the cost of photovoltaics and wind turbines.”
The report adds that “at the same time, bright spots for the industry were marked by a $1.4 billion share sale by Tesla Inc. and $650 million for an Enel SpA solar project in Mexico that may be the biggest plant of its kind. Germany and France also boosted investment. Brazil and India declined.
As any good analyst will tend to do, the concluding remark included a reasonable hedging: “It was a relatively quiet first quarter for global investment, but it’s too early to assume that 2017 as a whole will be lower than last year,” said Abraham Louw, analyst at BN.
The full press release is available at this link.
