Market research and analysis firm Frost & Sullivan have issued the 2018 Global Renewable Energy Outlook identifying global renewable investments to reach $228.3 billion in 2018.
This growth is despite a detected slower year-on-year growth rate of 0.7% due to China reducing its solar uptake.
The renewable energy market is expected to achieve 154.6GW of new energy capacity by the end of this year.
The majority of the energy capacity will come from solar photovoltaics with almost 90GW, followed by wind with 53GW.
Factors driving the renewable energy market include rising electricity demand, decarbonisation goals, and government incentives.
On the other hand, market expansion is being challenged by resource unavailability, high risks associated with investing in the market and the high upfront costs required to implement a project.
Asia is expected to invest $114.98 billion, account for 58% of the global total installments in 2018. Solar, wind and biomass will account for 96% of the total investments. Read more: Egypt: IRENA report assesses renewables potential
Investments by stakeholders in North America are expected to reach $33.17 billion, although low natural gas prices and the current US administration’s measures are significant barriers to renewable energy development.
Latin America will reach $17.7 billion in investments owing to the heavy focus on renewables in countries including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia.
Investments in Europe are driven by efforts by the region to meet 20% renewables in the energy mix by 2020 and 32% by 2030, goals set under the Renewable Energy Directive.
“The future of renewable power will be hybrid, with special emphasis on storage solutions. The pace of growth will depend on the level of government backing in terms of setting up support mechanisms to enable 100% renewable energy generation,” added Benintende. “To succeed in this market, OEMs need to evolve from being equipment and related service providers to being power generation solution providers.”
