London and New York, 12 January 2012 - Global investment in clean energy reached a new record of $260bn in 2011, up 5% on 2010 and almost five times the total of $53.6bn in 2004.

Investment in solar far outstripped that in wind, and perhaps of most note, US clean energy investment moved back ahead of China for the first time since 2008, according to the latest authoritative data from analysis company Bloomberg New Energy Finance. 
The record investment figures for 2011 are particularly striking because they were achieved during a turbulent year for the world economy in general and for the clean energy sector in particular. The industry has suffered severe pressure on the profit margins of manufacturers, a sharp fall in share prices, some notable bankruptcies, cuts in European government subsidy support, and a reduction in the availability of bank finance. 

Last year also saw the one trillionth dollar invested in clean energy globally.  2011 highlights include a 36% surge in total investment in solar technology, to $136.6bn. This was nearly double the $74.9bn investment in wind power, which was down 17% on the previous year.

This is not the first time that Bloomberg New Energy Finance has shown total investment in solar out-pacing that in wind (on today's revised figures for prior years, solar exceeded wind in 2004 and again in 2010), but this is the first time there has been such a huge gap. 

Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said: "The performance of solar is even more remarkable when you consider that the price of photovoltaic modules fell by close to 50% during 2011, and now stands 75% lower than three years ago, in mid-2008. The cost of PV technology has fallen, but the volume of PV sold has increased by a much greater factor as it approached competitiveness with other sources of power."

A second highlight was the performance of the US in 2011. In 2008, the US was by far the largest single country worldwide in terms of total investment in clean energy, but it was overtaken by China in 2009. China increased its lead in 2010. However in 2011, the US roared ahead once again, with total investment surging to $55.9bn, up 33%; China saw investment rise just 1% to $47.4bn.

Europe as a whole saw clean energy investment rise 3% to $100.2bn, with the strongest features being solar installations - both large-scale and distributed - in Germany and Italy, and offshore wind financings in the North Sea. India led the table in terms of growth in investment with a jump of 52% to $10.3bn, while Brazil clocked up a respectable 15% increase to $8.2bn.

The third-largest sector for investment in 2011 after solar and wind was energy-smart technologies, including smart grid, power storage, efficiency and advanced transport. This area saw total investment of $19.2bn, the bulk of it in corporate R&D and venture capital and private equity raisings. This was however down 17% on 2010 levels.

Among the smaller renewable energy sectors in 2011, biofuels saw total investment edge up from $8.6bn to $9bn, biomass and waste-to-energy suffered an 18% setback to $10.8bn, geothermal slipped from $3.2bn to $2.8bn, marine marked time at $0.3bn, and small hydro fell 25% to $3bn.

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