Global clean-energy markets are expanding rapidly, with revenues in four benchmark sectors — biofuels, wind power, solar photovoltaics, and fuel cells — up 40 percent from $55 billion in 2006 to $77.3 billion in 2007, according to the Clean Energy Trends 2008 report, recently released by clean-tech research and publishing firm Clean Edge Inc.
The four sectors are projected to more than triple over the next decade, growing to $254.5 billion by 2017.
The 2008 report finds that for the first time three leading clean- energy technologies each surpassed $20 billion in revenue:
• Global production and wholesale pricing of biofuels reached $25.4 billion in 2007 and is projected to hit $81.1 billion by 2017. The global biofuels market last year consisted of more than 13 billion gallons of ethanol and more than 2 billion gallons of biodiesel production worldwide.
• Wind power is expected to expand from $30.1 billion in 2007 to $83.4 billion in 2017. Last year’s global wind power installations reached a record 20,000 megawatts (MW), equivalent in size to 20 conventional fossil-fuel power plants.
• Solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components, and installation), which totaled $20.3 billion last year, will more than triple to $74 billion by 2017. Annual installations in 2007 were just shy of 3,000 MW worldwide.
New global investments in energy technologies — including venture capital (VC), project finance, public markets, and research and development — have expanded by 60 percent from $92.6 billion in 2006 to $148.4 billion in 2007, according to research firm and Clean Energy Trends content provider New Energy Finance. In the U.S., venture capitalists invested $2.7 billion in the clean-energy sector, representing almost 10 percent of total VC activity.
Clean Energy Trends 2008 also outlines five trends poised to make an impact on the markets this year. They describe:
• How small start-ups are powering markets for electric vehicles;
• Sustainable cities are being designed and built from the ground up;
• Overseas players are powering the U.S. wind market boom;
• Geothermal energy is experience a global renaissance as a clean- energy resource; -New technologies are helping oceangoing ships take a cleaner tack;
“Clean energy has moved from the margins to the mainstream and the proof is in these numbers,” said Clean Edge co-founder and principal Ron Pernick.
“Amid last year’s plummeting housing prices, rising foreclosure rates, and record high oil prices, clean energy continued to provide a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish economy.”
The annual Clean Energy Trends report, produced by leading clean- tech research and publishing firm Clean Edge, can be downloaded at no cost at http://www.cleanedge.com/reports/reports- trends2008.php.
On the Web: www.cleanedge.com
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