China and India are the top two nations when it comes to attracting green energy investment, according to a new report from Ernst & Young (EY).
The renewable energy country attractiveness index (recai) from EY pinpoints government policy in each as being key to their success.
Earlier this year the National Energy Administration (NEA) in China committed to a US$363 billion spend on clean energy capacity by the end of the decade. While India, which has added 10GW of solar capacity in just three years, has set a target to generate 175GW of renewable energy by 2022.
Ben Warren, EY’s Head of Energy Corporate Finance, said: “The renewable energy industry is beginning to break free of the shackles that have stalled progress in the past. More refined technology, lower costs and advances in battery storage are enabling more widespread investment and adoption of clean energy.”
Across northern Europe, for example, Ben said “falling costs in the offshore wind sector are beginning to deliver subsidy-free clean power, at scale.” He also highlights the huge impact energy storage is going to have on the industry’s future.
“It is difficult to overstate just how profound the impacts of wide-scale, low-cost energy storage will be on the utility sector. Ever since the first power plants were built in the 1880s, electrical engineers have grappled with the challenges of balancing, in real-time, the supply and demand of a commodity that was almost impossible to store.
“These challenges have become only greater with the rising proportion of intermittent renewable energy on electrical grids around the world. Battery storage promises to address these challenges, as well as ultimately enabling the entire decarbonization of the world’s electricity supply.”
