Clean energy investments in India dropped 20 per cent to $11 billion last year according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) report.
However in China where investment in all clean energy technologies increased to $132.6 billion, up 24 per cent from 2016. After China, the next biggest investing country was the U.S., at $56.9 billion, up 1 per cent on 2016 despite the less-friendly tone towards renewables adopted by the Trump administration.
The report shows global investment in renewable energy and energy-smart technologies in 2017 was only 7 per cent short of the record figure of $360.3 billion reached in 2015.
Solar investment globally amounted to $160.8 billion in 2017, up 18 per cent on the previous year despite these cost reductions. Just over half of that world total, or $86.5 billion, was spent in China. This was 58 per cent higher than in 2016, with an estimated 53 GW of PV capacity installed – up from 30 GW in 2016.
Large wind and solar project financing pushed Australia up 150 per cent to a record $9 billion, and Mexico up 516 per cent to $6.2 billion.
On the downside, Japan saw investment decline by 16 per cent in 2017, to $23.4 billion, while Germany slipped 26 per cent to $14.6 billion and the U.K. 56 per cent to $10.3 billion in the face of changes in policy support. Europe, as a whole, invested $57.4 billion, down 26 per cent year-on-year.