With the ongoing trend for more sustainable and environment-friendly energy sources, around $155 billion was invested last year in alternative energy funds. This fund does not even include large hydro, proving that the cause is getting wider and wider as time passes.
The awareness for more alternative energy sources has spurred even the large companies and powerful investors to invest their money to support the cause. This year, this is even expected to go higher. Among the alternative energy funds, $13.5 billion were given to companies who are developing new technologies to have more sustainable energy resources. Around $117 billion was invested in projects focusing on renewable energy sources such as wind, biofuel, solar and geothermal.
This increase in alternative energy funds is four times higher than that of 2004. Even as the global economic crisis loomed over most companies, there was still a high turnout in terms of alternative energy funds.
Different countries are showing large support in this cause for more sustainable energy resources, providing more awareness and support coming in from around the world. Emerging economies such as Brazil and China contributed to the five percent increase in the total amount of funds dedicated to alternative funds.
According to UN undersecretary general and the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme Achim Steiner, the economic crisis has definitely affected the campaign for clean energy. This is most especially true in the United States, where investments decreased by 2 percent. However, the efforts are still just as overwhelming, especially now that sustainable energy is becoming mainstream.
To be noted are the efforts of China, which is currently the second largest market in wind energy. This is in terms of new capacity, as well as photovoltaic manufacturing. Geothermal energy has been getting more and more utilized, especially in countries such as Kenya, Japan and Australia.
Even developing countries such as Chile, Brazil, the Philippines and Peru have been bringing in efforts to introduce policies and laws which would encourage energy conservation and more environment-friendly ways of living and energy-production. These countries have taken note of alternative energy funds, and have been seeing mobilization even in non-government organizations.
Among all the energy resources, wind was able to attract the largest amount in alternative energy funds. However, solar energy had the largest increase in terms of market share, while biofuel energy dipped a little bit by 9 percent.
One of the responses of the countries to the economic crisis is creating stimulus packages that have specific provisions for energy efficiency, boosting renewable energy sources. These new deals can significantly contribute to the efforts of having cleaner energy. These alternative energy funds would most certainly help support the market for cleaner energy.
Because of these efforts, it is assumed that prices of green energy tools would also fall down. Solar modules, for instance, is expected to soon fall by 43 percent in terms of price. This is because the supply bottleneck have been easing down, allowing for more suppliers to be able to produce according to the demands of the countries. The drive for sustainable energy has also been increasing alternative energy funds even for the companies producing them.
This proves that the private sector is soon catching up to the trend. Investments were also seen in bottleneck last year, but this year, they are expected to catch up and even increase significantly. Investments for sustainable energy are also one of the biggest stimulus packages in governments around the world. Efforts have been noted and reported in different occasion. In Asia, China remains to be the giant even in alternative energy funds.
There is a strong message that is beyond all of these alternative energy funds coming in from around the world. Banks are encouraged to increase their lending to the energy sector, tax exemptions or deductions are being asked for renewable energy funds, and more efforts have been on the way to get the alternative energy funds and investments flowing.
The plans that are backed up by alternative energy funds are scattered among short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. As long as the different governments of countries around the world continue to support the cause, we will soon be living in a more sustainable earth.
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