The alternative energy investments by a Bloomberg investment group are much higher than previously released.
The Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) group has made a correction to their initial investment numbers for the second quarter of 2015, indicating that they spent more money on clean energy than previously thought.
While 2015’s numbers were looking disheartening when compared to 2014’s investments, the company stated in a Friday press release that BNEF has changed some of its figures because of mistakes made when aggregating project and deal-level data. Previously, the amount spent on clean energy was thought to be $53 billion, a substantial number, but the correction indicates that the financial group spent $73.5 billion in the second quarter of 2015.
The chairman of the advisory board for BNEF, Michael Liebreich, admits that these numbers could be revised slightly in the future, and that the company had expected clean energy investments to be less this year than in 2014 because of the current strength of the dollar.
The new numbers mean that second quarter investments are only 0.2% less than the second quarter last year, and that investments made in both the first and second quarter ($127.9 billion in 2015) are only 3% less than those made in 2014.
The report indicates that the BNEF investment in China was $27.9bn, a 15% increase from last year. The United States invested $12.2bn, 3% more than in the same quarter in 2014. Europe contributed $12.7bn, 27% less than they invested last year. India is increasing its its clean energy expenditures by 75%, a total of $2.2bn in investments, while Brazil reduced its expenditures by 50%, to $1bn. Japan also invested $8.3bn, though that is 8% less than in the second quarter of 2014.
Wind investments are down by 13%, to $27.8bn. However, solar energy received $41.9bn in investments, a 23% increase from this quarter last year. Small-scale solar projects also received 29% more, after seeing investments of $20.4bn.
Image (c) The David Casey Copley ’70 Library
