Renewable Energy Investment Could Hit $200 Billion in 2010

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A new report by Bloomberg finds that renewable energy investment may increase by 23% worldwide this year and could hit $200 billion.

Renewable energy investment was $162 billion last year, but Bloomberg predicts that it will be somewhere between $175 and $200 billion this year.

But the real questions are, what will happen in the years to come and who will be the world leaders in this field?

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“There’s a big bulge of stimulus money coming through this year,” Bloomberg New Energy Finance Chief Executive Officer Michael Liebreich said during a press conference at the consultant’s annual conference in London last week. “The question is what happens when they switch off the stimulus.”

US, China, Europe, and others have $184 billion set aside for clean energy projects, most of which (two thirds of it) is to be spent by the end of 2011.

Clearly, China is in the lead on this topic. Last year, China invested $34.5 billion in clean energy, whereas the US invested $18.6 billion (the second most worldwide). In doing so, it “replaced the U.S. as the biggest investor in renewable energy for the first time in at least five years.”

China is not looking to hit cruise control anytime soon either — a new multi-billion dollar renewable energy program is set for launch soon.

Meanwhile, Republican Congressmen (and Congresswomen) in the US are fighting every attempt to bring clean energy and climate friendly investment to the US.

And China is reportedly doing its part to stay in #1 by trying to squeeze the US out of its renewable energy market.

With the pace of change in the world today, it is hard to know what renewable energy investment will be in a few years, but it looks like you could put your money on China being in the lead. We will see.

Image Credit: lupinehorror via flickr under a CC license