Developing nations lead the global clean energy transition: BNEF

Developing nations are taking the lead in driving the global clean energy transition, said Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) in its latest annual survey, Climatescope 2018. According to the survey, developing countries contributed to the large majority of the world’s new zero-carbon power capacity in 2017, with a total of 114GW added in these nations. This is almost double the 63GW added in wealthier nations. Clean energy deployment is also increasing most quickly in developing nations, with new additions having increased 20.4 per cent year-on-year in these countries.

This trend has largely been enabled by the rapidly improving economics of clean energy technologies, especially for solar and wind, which has lowered the barriers to adoption for emerging markets. The abundant natural resources and comparatively lower cost of equipment available to these nations have also allowed renewables projects to go head-to-head with fossil plants on price – even without the benefit of subsidies.

Development banks, export credit agencies, and other traditional backers of projects continue to support the financing of new clean energy projects in developing countries. However, private players, especially international utility companies, have also emerged as some of the top investors. In 2017, funding from international utilities, project developers, and commercial banks surged to US$9.8 billion.

Other notable highlights from the survey include:

• Developing countries launched the least new coal-fired power generating capacity since 2006. New coal build decreased 38 per cent year-on-year to 48GW, which represents half of the amount added in 2015 when the market peaked at 97GW of coal commissioned.

• For the first time, renewable sources comprised the bulk of all new power-generating capacity added. In 2017, developing countries having added 186GW to their grids. Wind and solar contributed just over half of this with 94GW.

• Clean energy investment is being deployed in more nations than ever. As of the end of 2017, 54 developing countries had recorded investment in at least one utility-scale wind farm, compared to only 20 a decade ago. Similarly, 76 developing countries had received financing for solar projects by end-2017, compared to only three a decade ago.

To download the complete Climatescope 2018 survey, including the complete data sets for all 103 emerging markets, please click here.