by Brianna Crandall — April 8, 2016—Global investment in solar, wind, and other renewable energy capacity topped that of global coal- and gas-fired electricity generation, according to a U.N.-backed report released on March 24.
Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016 is the 10th edition of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) annual report.
Annual global investment of $266 billion in new renewables capacity was more than double the estimated $130 billion invested in coal and gas power stations in 2015, according to the report.
This UNEP graphic shows milestones reached in renewable energy investments
Renewable energy sources excluding large hydropower, made up 54% of added gigawatt (GW) capacity of all technologies last year. It marks the first time new installed renewables have topped the capacity added from all conventional technologies.
The 134 GW of renewable power added worldwide in 2015 compares to 106 GW in 2014 and 87 GW in 2013, according to the report written by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
As in previous years, the report shows the 2015 renewable energy market was dominated by solar photovoltaics and wind, which together added 118GW in generating capacity, far above the previous record of 94GW set in 2014. Wind added 62GW and photovoltaics 56GW. More modest amounts were provided by biomass and waste-to-power, geothermal, solar thermal and small hydro.
This UNEP map shows new investment in renewable energy by country
In 2015, more attention was drawn to battery storage as an adjunct to solar and wind projects and to small-scale PV systems. Energy storage is of significant importance as it is one way of providing fast-responding balancing to the grid, whether to deal with demand spikes or variable renewable power generation from wind and solar, notes UNEP. Last year, some 250MW of utility-scale electricity storage (excluding pumped hydro and lead-acid batteries) was installed worldwide, up from 160MW in 2014.
UNEP offers the full report, Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016, along with a video message from the UNEP executive director.
