In the coming years, Africa and Asia will gradually overtake Europe as one of the key areas of growth in the production and use of renewable energy technologies, a new report suggests.
The report released by EY shows that in 2013, Germany, as one of Europe’s leaders in renewable energy technology, suffered with its general election taking place last September, meaning a delay on discussions on how to reduce the cost of green energy.
This was coupled with a 46pc drop in investments in the technology last year.
Meanwhile, as reported previously, South Africa is enjoying a significant boom of late with regard to clean tech and has previously been voted by the IHS as the best country in the world in which to locate clean technologies.
Also, after a series of delays, phase two of India’s ambitious National Solar Mission attracted bids totalling 2,170MW, almost triple the 750MW on offer. This solar success will likely boost support for government plans to launch a similar programme for wind; the National Wind Energy Mission, announced in January, will target 100GW of wind power by 2022, a third of India’s estimated wind-energy potential.
Meanwhile, the UK government’s proposals to make mature renewable technologies compete head-to-head for subsidy support from day one of the new contracts for difference regime — on top of cuts already planned — have thrown their market into a spin.
Mixed policy signals on the country’s long-term energy strategy are also continuing to reduce investor confidence in the government‘s commitment to a low-carbon energy future, while the mothballing of a number of large-scale offshore wind projects has also sparked concerns.
In its infographic below, EY outlines its outlook for 2014 in terms of renewable energy and some of what it sees will be the low and high points for selected nations like Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Australia.
