Light and heat leading global clean energy showing growth

Following the report issued by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in early July, after the global renewable energy investment hit a record high in 2010, on July 14th, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) released a report saying that in the second quarter of this year, global clean energy investment Again showing a strong growth trend.

Investment gains are better than stocks According to the BNEF report, in the second quarter of this year, the global new energy sector attracted a total of approximately $41.7 billion in new investments. The year-on-year increase of 22% year-on-year has also increased by 27% compared with the first quarter of this year. Data shows that this is the quarter with the highest new investment since the fourth quarter of 2010 and 2007.

This strong growth momentum contrasts sharply with the sluggish performance of clean energy stocks between April and June this year. BNEF pointed out in the report that the WilderHill global new energy innovation index tracking 98 global clean energy stocks fell by about 13% in the second quarter.

Liebreich, chief executive officer of BNEF, commented: “There is still an interesting contrast between clean energy investment and the share price of related fields. The global investment in almost all areas of clean energy is very strong, but the performance of these industries is not as good as According to our analysis, this situation is partly due to the fact that existing investors have concerns about whether future national policies will continue to support the clean energy industry, and partly because of the fierce competition in these industries, low costs and high costs. The manufacturing profits are difficult to maintain for a long time."

However, BNEF's statistics do not include mergers and acquisitions among companies in the clean energy sector, and some reintegration activities. BNEF believes that this part of the funds only changed hands within the industry, not the new funds. However, this is an important indicator that can reflect the volume of transactions. In the second quarter, this figure rose by 93% to reach US$21.7 billion. Among them, there are large-scale mergers and acquisitions of renewable energy projects and participating companies. Including Sinopec's $2 billion purchase of Norwegian photovoltaic material manufacturer Elkem; France's Total Group purchases 60% of US photovoltaic module manufacturer SunPower Corporation for $1.6 billion.

The leading solar energy thermoelectric project is based on the BNEF statistics, which is the largest “hero” non-solar thermal power project that contributed to the second-quarter investment growth. Among them, the only 392 MW Ivanpah solar thermal power project with the largest light source company in the United States and constructed in the United States, with a total investment of up to US$2.2 billion; and another 100 MW FPLTremosol project in Spain and Eskom In the 100 megawatt Uppington project in South Africa, both investments have also reached millions of dollars respectively. BNEF believes that these are the project representatives with higher investment in the second quarter of this year.

In addition to the solar thermal power projects, other projects such as wind energy, geothermal energy, and biomass energy also performed well. Among them, the 400 megawatt geothermal project in Kenya, the 300 megawatt project at the Alta Wind Energy Center in California, California, and the biogas project in Germany are all outstanding.

Diversification of funding sources New sources of investment in the clean energy sector in the second quarter of this year are characterized by diversification. According to Shen Hongwen, a research fellow of China Investment Advisor New Energy Industry, there are mainly three sources of funds for new investment during the quarter: First, infrastructure construction assets**, including infrastructure for solar power plants and wind farms; and second, public markets for listing cleanliness. Energy company's investment; Third, venture capital and individual equity investment in non-listed company clean energy companies. These funds constitute a major part of the new investment in clean energy.

The BNEF report data shows that the total amount of infrastructure construction assets for renewable energy power generation projects was US$35.3 billion, an increase of 30% from the first quarter of this year.

In the second quarter of this year, venture capital and private equity also witnessed significant growth in investment in clean energy companies. Total amounted to 3.1 billion US dollars, or about 74%, is the highest quarterly increase since the third quarter of 2008. This includes the German biogas company Agri. The capital company’s investment of 445 million U.S. dollars, and China’s polysilicon production company Sevi’s 240 million U.S. dollar investment. BNEF pointed out that the expansion of private capital is the main driving force for the above two investment growth in the quarter.

However, there was also a drop in investment in the first quarter of the same period of the previous year. According to BNEF, the open market investment in listed clean energy companies fell by 7% to only 3.4 billion U.S. dollars. Among them, the largest transaction this quarter was the initial public offering of Huaneng New Energy, a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, in Hong Kong, with a total value of US$799 million.

The report of BNEF, which has the strongest rebounding trend in the United States, also categorized the investment in clean energy in the second quarter of this year by geographic location. Among them, the United States has the most prominent rebounding momentum. In the second quarter of this year, the total investment was 10.5 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 195%, which is also the third highest quarterly performance in its history. According to BNEF analysis, this is mainly due to the promotion of wind power and solar energy projects such as Alta and Ivanpah.

In addition, India’s total investment in clean energy for the quarter also rose by 46% to reach US$2.5 billion; Europe’s total investment increased by 14% to US$8.9 billion, due mainly to large-scale solar thermal power projects in Spain. Wind farm projects in Austria and Spain. It is worth mentioning that according to BNEF's data, China’s investment in the clean energy sector was the most prominent in the second quarter of this year. Although the total amount was 11% lower than the first quarter, it was still the largest global clean energy investment in the quarter. The country has a total of 12 billion U.S. dollars.

BNEF pointed out in particular that the U.S. clean energy industry's recent ups and downs have shown signs of strength: the fourth quarter of last year was stronger, the first quarter of this year was weak, and the second quarter was stronger again. The reason, BNEF believes that the market had previously expected the US Department of Finance's cash subsidies for renewable energy projects will soon expire, but later this policy was postponed until the end of this year, so in the fourth quarter of last year there was a concentrated investment, resulting in Investment in the first quarter of this year decreased. The delay in the subsidy termination and the active development of solar projects in California and the Central Atlantic states contributed to the growth of investment in the second quarter of this year. In addition, some long-term development projects have also made important progress. For example, the Florida-based American Renewable Energy Company obtained a fund of 375 million U.S. dollars from a group of foreign banks headed by Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and built a biomass plant in Gainesville; the oil company Valero won the bid. US$21.3 billion in funding to build a new biodiesel plant in Louisiana.

Not coincidentally, changes in investment growth in the global clean energy sector are similar to those in the United States. Shen Hongwen told this reporter: “In the first quarter of this year, the world’s clean energy sector only added about 31.1 billion U.S. dollars. This is mainly due to the uncertainty in Europe’s clean energy policy in the first quarter. The reform of the PV subsidy policy and the reduction of the subsidy amount have affected the investment enthusiasm of the developers and the development of the industry has been slowed down due to this effect.

Shen Hongwen also predicted that the global investment in clean energy in the second half of this year will maintain rapid growth on a steady basis. “Firstly, this year’s half year’s nuclear leakage in Japan and the rise in global crude oil prices will prompt the countries of the world to increase their investment in clean energy; second, the policy for clean energy in the second half of this year will basically stabilize, and the number of variables will increase. The reduction is beneficial to the steady development of the industry. Third, the development of clean energy in emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil is staggering. In the second half of this year, it will continue to maintain the momentum of rapid growth and drive the growth of global clean energy investment.”