Deep Dive
New investor-backed campaign targets a trillion dollars for US renewables
Clean energy investors want policies to bring green dollars to the red, white and blue.
There may be a trillion-dollar opportunity in U.S. renewable energy.
The “phenomenally abundant” mix of wind, solar and other renewables makes the U.S. one of the most likely places in the world for more investment, according to Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).
The major investors in renewables are ready to up their commitment, Wetstone told Utility Dive. In return, U.S. policymakers must commit to policies like increased mandates for renewables and energy storage that will keep renewables on a level playing field with other generation resources when the federal tax credits now driving growth expire in the early 2020s.
Globally, $5.9 trillion has gone into the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors since 2007, according to Ethical Markets’ Green Transition Scoreboard. Additional global investment in renewables alone could reach $11.5 trillion through 2050, according to the 2018 Bloomberg New Energy Finance Outlook. The 2017 global investment was $333.5 billion. U.S. investment in 2017 was $57 billion.
This investment has already brought the cost of utility-scale solar down 77%, the cost of wind down 38% and the cost of battery storage down 79% since 2009, a March BNEF study found. Both wind and solar costs dropped 18% in the just first half of 2017, according to the new BNEF Outlook. Battery prices are forecast to fall 67% more by 2030.