The United Nations and Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently published a report covering global trends in the renewable energy space for 2017.
Here are some of their key findings:
- 2016 was a record year in terms of renewable power capacity installed worldwide. This includes wind, solar, biomass and waste-to-energy, geothermal, small hydro, and marine sources.
- The share of global electricity generated from renewable sources rose from 10.3% (2015) to 11.3% (2016).
- However, overall investment in renewables declined in 2016 for two main reasons. Costs went down (good news). And China and Japan exhibited a dramatic slowdown in terms of investment activity (bad news).
- Acquisitions of renewal assets, such as wind farms and solar parks, hit a new peak at $72.7 billion.
- A number of promising new pricing records set in 2016: $29.10 per MWh for solar in Chile and $30 per MWh for onshore wind in Morocco.
- In one year, the cost of solar generation dropped on average about 17% and onshore wind dropped about 18%.