- BloombergNEF says in 2022 the world installed 260 GW of new solar PV capacity
- The sector took $308 billion investment out of $495 billion global spending in renewable energies
- China accounted for 55% of the total renewable energy spend last year with $273 billion, followed by the US investing $50 billion
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BloombergNEF) counts global installed solar PV capacity in 2022 to have grown to 260 GW with the technology claiming $308 billion investment out of $495 billion invested in the renewable energy sector last year.
According to these estimates, China with its 87.41 GW solar deployments last year accounted for over 33% of the global total (see China Exited 2022 With 87 GW+ New PV Capacity).
The 36% annual jump in solar investment included $164 billion China alone invested in building new solar farms and another $109 billion into new wind farms. With these investments, China made up 55% of the total $495 billion.
The US followed next as the largest single renewables market shelling out close to $50 billion, while the European Union (EU) spending declined 10% annually to $39 billion ‘despite a strong rise in solar’.
“While these investment figures are the highest ever, they fall short of BNEF estimates of what is needed to be on track for global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” stated BloombergNEF.
These details appear in BloombergNEF’s Energy Transition Investment Trends report released in January 2023 in which it says this $495 billion was part of $1.1 trillion investment in global energy transition the world undertook in 2022 with solar PV manufacturing factories taking $23.9 billion of the total (see Solar Fabs Attracted $23.9 Billion Investment In 2022).
The complete report can be downloaded from BloombergNEF’s website.
The 260 GW figure is closer to 268 GW that Pietro Radoia of BloombergNEF offered as an estimate from the agency under an optimistic scenario range while participating in an April 2022 held TaiyangNews webinar on Solar Demand, Supply, And Prices In Europe Today And Tomorrow. At that time, he was expecting 220 GW to be installed in 2022 under a conservative scenario (see European Solar Developments 2022).
