"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 Programme.
"The country holds great potential in the Asia/Oceania region and will continue to be a top destination for private investment this year," she said.
India’s ‘National Solar Mission’, with a goal of 20 GW of solar power installed by 2020 (photovoltaic and concentrating solar power), helped drive the seven-fold jump in solar energy investments, to $4.2 billion.
Globally, investment grew to a record $263 billion in 2011, a 6.5 per cent increase over the previous year. The United States reclaimed the top spot among all G-20 nations and attracted $48 billion.
However, with $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 $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. Investments in the G-20 countries accounted for more than 95 per cent of the global total.
