China's renewable capacity investments down 8% to $83.4b in 2019

Investments in solar dropped to less than a third of the 2017 peak.

Whilst China remains king in renewable energy capacity, investments hit a six-year low and fell 8% to $83.4b in 2019, according to data from BloombergNEF (BNEF). Investments in solar slumped 33% to $25.7b, less than a third of the boom figure reached in 2017.

Meanwhile, wind investment rose 10% to $55b. According to BNEF head of wind research Tom Harries: “Offshore wind developers in China brought forward 15 projects to beat a scheduled expiry of that country’s feed-in tariff.”

Globally, investment in renewable energy capacity edged up 1% to $282.2b. Offshore and onshore wind led the sector as grew 6% to $138.2b. Solar fell close behind, dipping 3% to $131.1b. Installations for the two combined are projected at 180GW added.

After China was the US, where investments jumped 28% to $55.5b, attributed to a rush by wind and solar developers to qualify for federal tax credits that were due for scale-back in 2020.

In Asia, investments in Japan slipped $16.5b, whilst investments in Australia crashed 40% to $5.6b. India also put 14% less into green energy at $9.3b.

In contrast, the United Arab Emirates invested a record $4.5b, with almost all coming from a 950MW Al Maktoum IV solar thermal and photovoltaic complex in Dubai.