The overall trend for the clean energy market continued to be one of growth and expansion in 2010. Combined global revenue for wind power, solar photovoltaics (PV) and biofuels surged 35.2% over the prior year, growing from $139.1 billion to $188.1 billion, according to the Clean Energy Trends 2011 report issued by Clean Edge Inc.
The bulk of this expansion came from a more than doubling in global solar PV installations and steady growth in the biofuels sector. For the first time since Clean Edge began tracking the wind power sector, however, the global wind market witnessed a slight year-over-year decline in market size, in both overall dollars and installations.
According to Clean Edge research, the global market for wind power has expanded from a global market worth $4.5 billion in 2000 to more than $60.5 billion today, for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.7%.
The global market for solar PV has expanded from just $2.5 billion in 2000 to $71.2 billion in 2010, representing a CAGR of 39.8%.
‘As witnessed over the past decade, cleantech has proven to be a significant business opportunity, and its growth rates now rival that of earlier technology revolutions like telephony, computers and the Internet,’ says Ron Pernick, Clean Edge co-founder and managing director. ‘We expect overall growth to slow down in some sectors as the clean energy market reaches wide adoption and utility-scale deployment, but there's still considerable room for expansion.’
Wind power is projected to expand from $60.5 billion in 2010 to $122.9 billion in 2020. Last year's global wind power installations declined slightly to 35.2 GW, down from a record 37.5 GW the prior year, according to the report.
China, the global leader in new installations for the third year in a row, continued to see strong growth with total new installations of more than 16 GW, an increase of 27%. The U.S., the world's second-largest market, declined after record growth in 2009, adding only half as much capacity as the prior year with just 5 GW installed in 2010.
According to data provided by the Cleantech Group, U.S.-based venture capital investments in cleantech increased 46% from $3.5 billion in 2009 to $5.1 billion in 2010. Clean Edge's analysis found that cleantech's percentage of total U.S. venture capital investments continued to rise, accounting for 23.2% of total U.S. venture activity in 2010.
SOURCE: Clean Edge Inc.
