India one of the top performing clean energy economies: Report

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With Indian receiving USD 10.2 billion investments in clean energy, the country has emerged as one of the top performing clean energy economies in the 21st century, an eminent American non-profit organisation said in a report.

The Pew Charitable Trust, in its report, said India's clean energy sector continued to flourish in 2011, with private investment increasing 54 per cent to USD 10.2 billion, placing the country at number 6 spot among the G-20 nations.

This was the second highest growth rate among the G-20 nations, The Pew Energy said in its research report released here yesterday.

"On a number of measures, India has been one of the top performing clean energy economies in the 21st century, registering the fifth highest five-year rate of investment growth and eighth highest in installed renewable energy capacity," said Phyllis Cuttino, director of Pew's Clean Energy Program.

"The country holds great potential in the Asia/Oceana region and will continue to be a top destination for private investment this year," she said.

Clean energy investment, excluding research and development, has grown by 600 per cent since 2004, on the basis of effective national policies that create market certainty, Cuttino added.

India's 'National Solar Mission', with a goal of 20 GW of solar power installed by 2020, helped drive the seven-fold jump in solar energy investments, to USD 4.2 billion, the report said, adding the country received USD 4.6 billion and an additional 2.8 GW of capacity was installed over the course of the year.

India now has 22.4 gigawatts of installed clean energy generating capacity, it noted. "The clean energy sector received its trillionth dollar of private investment just before the end of 2011, demonstrating significant growth over the past eight years," said Michael Liebreich, CEO of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Pew's research partner.

"Solar installations drove most of the activity last year as the falling price of photovoltaic modules, now 75 per cent lower than three years ago, more than compensated for weakening clean energy support mechanisms in a number of parts of the world," Liebreich said.

Globally, investment grew to a record USD 263 billion in 2011, a 6.5 per cent increase over the previous year, the report said.

The US reclaimed the top spot among all G-20 nations and attracted USD 48 billion. However, with USD 45.5 billion in private investments, China continued to be a hub of clean energy activity -- leading the world in wind energy investment and deployment as well as wind and solar manufacturing. Germany received USD 30.6 billion ranking third among G-20 nations.

The combination of falling prices and growing investments accelerated installation of clean energy generating capacity by a record 83.5 GW in 2011 bringing the total to 565 GW globally.

This represents almost 50 per cent more than installed nuclear power capacity, the report said.