Clean Energy Usage Continues To Soar
This year's report from Clean Edge Inc, one of the world's leading authorities on clean energy and technology, shows that the clean energy market continued to expand unabated in 2010. Global revenue for solar, wind and biofuel energy climbed more than 35% in the last year alone.
Most expansion came in the solar power market and from steady growth in biofuels, as world governments increasingly promoted clean energy through grants and tax credits.
But it was a specially prepared ten-year report from Clean Edge Inc that highlighted the most thought-provoking statistics regarding clean and renewable energies over the past decade. It showed vast jumps year-on-year in the development and use of renewable energies worldwide.
The global solar panel market alone was worth $71.2 billion in 2010, as opposed to just $2.5 billion in 2000. Wind power was up nearly 30% annually at $60.5 billion, when, in 2000, it was worth just $2.5 billion.
To put these figures into context, the growth in clean energies is comparable to similar growth in the mobile telephone and IT sectors over the same period, clearly demonstrating that renewable energies have become big business. This is also borne out by the fact that US based venture capital investment in clean power increased by 46%, accounting for almost a quarter of all such investment in 2010.
The report goes on to make some healthy predictions for the future of renewable energies too, stating that biofuel production and revenues from wind power will double in the run-up to 2020. Solar power won't be far behind. However, the same year-on-year increases can't be expected says Ron Pernick, the founder of Clean Edge:
''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.''
Although the report seems more than a little optimistic on the future of renewable energies, clearly, with oil prices at a yearly high, and rising, and ever depleting natural resources, world governments are becoming more focused on promoting renewable fuels as clean energies become the cheaper option.
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