Antinuclear

This investment is consistent with a broader trend of major emerging economies like China, India, and Brazil becoming important sources of global overseas invest¬ments. WRI’s new working paper, China’s Overseas Investments in the Wind and Solar Industries: Trends and Drivers, helps to better understand China’s renewable energy investments overseas, as well as the policy and market forces that drive them.

China’s Overseas Wind and Solar Investments, By the Numbers

According to our research, Chinese companies have made at least 124 investments in solar and wind industries in 33 countries over the past decade (2002 – 2011), more than half of which were made in 2010 and 2011 (see Figure 1). Despite some gaps in the data that prevent us from generalizing about all of China’s wind and solar investments, we learned that:

• Of the 54 investments for which financial data were available, the cumulative amount invested came to nearly US$40 billion.
• China invested roughly US$10 billion in 16 wind projects and US$27.5 billion in 38 solar investments.
• Of 53 investments with capacity data available, the cumulative installed capacity added was nearly 6,000 MW.
• The majority of investments were in electricity generation. Several investments were made in manufacturing facilities and to establish sales and marketing offices.
• Most of the investments were in developed countries. A huge amount went to the United States, as well as Germany, Italy, and Australia. A handful of developing countries—including South Africa, Pakistan, and Ethiopia—also attracted multiple investments…….