The United Nations Energy Program announced today that of the $250 billion spent building new power capacity in 2008, $140 billion (56%) was spent on clean energy projects worldwide. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, sums up the report:

“Without doubt the economic crisis has taken its toll on investments in clean energy when set against the record-breaking growth of recent years. Investment in the United States fell by two per cent and in Europe growth was very much muted. However, there were also some bright points in 2008 especially in developing economies—China became the world’s second largest wind market in terms of new capacity and the world’s biggest photovoltaic manufacturer and a rise in geothermal energy may be getting underway in countries from Australia to Japan and Kenya”.

This is the first time that investment in clean energy outweigh investment in fossil fuels, with large hydro-power projects, wind, solar and geothermal among renewable sources covered by the report. Much of the investment in fossil fuel power electricity generation was in coal power plants in places like China. The data re-affirms the growing influence and importance of China in finding a solution to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. There are two stark and opposing trends in China that relate to its need for power from all sources to fuel its enormously rapid and massive economic growth. It is now the second largest wind market in the world and first in photovoltaic manufacturing yet also now leads the world in emissions.

According to an article in the New York Times, “renewable energy still only accounted for 6.2 percent of total power sector capacity in 2008,” showing that while news like this is welcome, plenty of challenges remain. As with most challenges, however, opportunities also abound for those governments, individuals, and companies with certain traits: vision to recognize opportunities, gumption to take the necessary risks, and hard work and perseverance to follow through until successful.

- Justin Manger