With the current trend of more sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources, about 155 billion U.S. dollars last year was invested in alternative energy funds. This fund does not even include large hydro, which shows that the cause becomes more and more as time passes.
The more awareness of alternative energy sources has resulted in even large corporations and powerful investors to invest their money to support the cause. This year even more are expected to increase. Among the alternative energy fund, 13.5 billion U.S. dollars were given to companies that are developing new technologies to have more sustainable energy sources. Around 117 billion U.S. dollars were invested in projects focusing on renewable energy sources like wind, biofuels, solar and geothermal.
This increase in funding for alternative energy is four times higher than in 2004. Although the global economic crisis looming over most companies, there is still a high turnout in terms of alternative energy funds.
Different countries are showing strong support in this cause for more sustainable energy resources, providing greater awareness and support coming from all over the world. Emerging economies such as Brazil and China contributed to the increase of five per cent in the total amount of funds dedicated to alternative funds.
According to the deputy secretary general of the United Nations and Executive Director United Nations Environment Program, Achim Steiner, the economic crisis has definitely affected the campaign for clean energy. This is especially true in most of the United States, where investment fell by 2 percent. However, efforts are still so overwhelming, especially now that sustainable energy is becoming general.
To take into account are the efforts of China, which is currently the second largest wind energy market. This is in terms of new capacity and photovoltaic manufacturing. Geothermal energy has been increasingly used, especially in countries such as Kenya, Japan and Australia.
Even developing countries like Chile, Brazil, Philippines and Peru have been carrying on efforts to establish policies and laws that encourage energy conservation and more environmentally friendly lifestyles and energy-production. These countries have taken note of the funding of alternative energy, and have been including in the mobilization of NGOs.
Among all energy resources, wind could attract as many alternative energy fund. However, solar power has the largest increase in terms of market share, while the biofuel energy fell slightly by 9 percent.
One of the country responses to the economic crisis is creating incentive packages that have specific provisions for energy efficiency, promoting renewable energy sources. These new agreements can contribute significantly to efforts to have cleaner energy. These alternative energy fund that will certainly help support the market for cleaner energy.
Due to these efforts, it is assumed that the prices of the tools of "green" energy are also collapsing. The solar modules, for example, is expected to soon fall by 43 percent in terms of price. This is because the bottleneck in supply have been slowing down, allowing more suppliers to produce to the demands of countries. The drive for sustainable energy has also increased funding for alternative energy, even for companies that produce them.
This shows that the private sector is just catching up with the trend. Investments were also observed in the bottleneck last year but this year, is expected to catch up and even increase significantly. Investment in sustainable energy is also one of the largest stimulus packages in governments around the world. Efforts have been observed and reported on different occasions.In Asia, China remains the giant, even in alternative energy funds.
There is strong message that is beyond all these alternative energy funds that come from around the world. Banks are encouraged to increase their loans to the energy sector, exemptions or deductions are asked to fund renewables, and more efforts have been on the road for the funds and alternative investments flowing energy.
The plans are backed by alternative energy funds are dispersed over short-term, medium term and long term goals. While the governments of countries around the world continue to support the cause, we will soon be living in a more sustainable planet.
