$10bn in renewables investment in two years for South Africa

South Africa has been ranked third, after China and Brazil, in a new country-by-country assessment of 55 renewable-energy markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Climatescope 2014 report and index, which has been compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance on behalf of American and British government and development agencies, shows that clean-energy investments in developing countries have outpaced those in developed countries.

China, Brazil, South Africa, India, Chile, Uruguay, Kenya, Mexico, Indonesia and Uganda are ranked in the top ten, with South Africa having surged ahead with nearly $10-billion worth of clean energy investment in the last two years.

South Africa, the study found, accounted for almost 90% of investments in sub-Saharan Africa during this period and was second-best globally on Climatescope’s ‘Clean Energy Investment’ ranking, based on the cumulative growth rate in 2012/13 of clean-energy investment – Uruguay led the ranking.

Overall, Climatescope 2014 has also found that developing nations represent a large and rapidly growing share of the world’s clean energy investment.

“The results suggest renewable technologies can be just as cost-competitive in emerging parts of the world as they are in richer nations,” the study asserted, adding that developing countries were rapidly strengthening their policy frameworks to support more clean energy investment.

By: Terence Creamer

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/sa-attracts-nearly-10bn-in-renewables-investment-in-two-years-study-2014-10-28/rep_id:3182