Summary: In last year’s Clean Energy Trends report, it was noted that 2008 would prove to be another banner year for clean energy, even in the face of a brooding economic storm. That prognosis proved correct, with revenue growth among three key clean-energy sectors expanding by 53 percent globally between 2007 and 2008. Last year’s significant revenue increase was based on a number of factors, including the continued double-digit expansion in key markets, as well as growing wind farm development costs due primarily to high-demand, low-supply market dynamics that loomed throughout most of 2008. We don’t see a repeat performance of such growth happening in 2009.
Clean Edge, which has been tracking the growth of clean-tech markets for nearly a decade, reports that global revenues for solar photovoltaics, wind power, and biofuels expanded from $75.8 billion in 2007 to $115.9 billion in 2008. For the first time, one sector alone, wind, had revenues exceeding $50 billion. New global investments in energy technologies—including venture capital, project finance, public markets, and research and development—expanded by 4.7 percent from $148.4 billion in 2007 to $155.4 billion in 2008, according to research firm New Energy Finance. But despite this striking increase in global revenue and continued growth in global investments, the clean-energy sector faces considerable challenges moving forward. A sinking stock market continues to plague the initial public offering (IPO) markets, with only a handful of energy-related IPO listings on U.S. exchanges in 2008.
Severely tightened credit markets also began to take their toll. In late 2008 and early 2009, the extent of constrained credit became apparent, with a range of clean-energy companies delaying plans, laying off staff, or scuttling projects entirely. While we expect to see continued growth for the sector in the mid- to long-term, we believe 2009 will be a year of refocus, consolidation, or retrenchment for many firms. At the same time, new government spending, regulation, and policies should help the industry weather the current economic crisis better than most other sectors. On balance, we believe clean energy and energy intelligence will be seen as a means to help economies around the world pull out of the current economic malaise.
To download the whole Clean Energy Trends 2009 report, please go to: www.cleanedge.com/reports/