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Cleantech is maturing, growing, and doing reasonably well. In 2011, for the first time, power plants operating on solar, wind, and biomass energy garnered more investment than those powered by natural gas, oil, and coal — $187 billion for renewables compared to $157 billion for fossil fuels, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The group predicted that renewable energy investments will double over the next eight years.
The perception is quite different, at least in the political arena, where it is believed that cleantech was a promise that largely failed, like universal health care or a balanced federal budget. After all, 2011 saw a few spectacular swan dives by promising companies, several of which had received US government funding, at least one of whose name is destined to be synonymous with wasteful taxpayer subsidies. The prevailing narrative is that solar and other clean technologies have not lived up to their promise and remain costly and unreliable, out of reach for most mainstream uses.
The facts, however speak for themselves:
- Solar energy, for all the high-voltage company failures, hit record growth in the United States — more than 1,000 megawatts installed during the first three quarters of 2011, compared with 887 MW in all of 2010, according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). The solar market grew globally, as well. According to a report by GTM Research and Bridge, India is facing a perfect storm of factors that will drive solar photovoltaic adoption at a “furious pace over the next five years and beyond.” And NDP Solarbuzz forecast that in 2011, China would surpass United States and Japanese solar installations for the first time.
- 2011 was also a boom year for wind energy, which now provides 20 percent of electricity in Iowa and South Dakota, according to the American Wind Energy Association, and at key moments surges to 50 percent in Colorado. The market research firm Lucintel predicts that the world market for wind energy will grow at a compound annual rate of 12 percent for at least the next five years. In some parts of the world – Brazil, for example — the price of wind energy is now below that of natural gas.
- All this turmoil notwithstanding, the United States became a net exporter of solar products to the tune of $1.8 billion in 2010, according to GTM Research and the SEIA, primarily through sales of solar manufacturing equipment and polysilicon, solar modules’ main ingredient.
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