How America Lost the Green Tech Race
The good news from the latest Pew Charitable Trusts and Bloomberg New Energy Finance clean energy investment report is that the sector shook off the recession blues in 2010. Investment in wind, solar, and other clean energy technologies grew 30 percent, to nearly a quarter trillion dollars, last year. The bad news is that the U.S. – the land of innovators and entrepreneurs where the modern energy economy took shape – fell from second to third place, behind top dog China and runner-up Germany.
We’re Number 3! No surprise why we’re getting that sinking feeling. Congress - wallowing in a noxious mud pit of overwrought ideology, destructive partisanship, and scientific illiteracy – is sending investors a clear message: the U.S. doesn’t have a coherent energy strategy and don’t bet on seeing one anytime soon.
Instead, Republicans would rather spend time searching for the chimera of energy independence through increased domestic oil drilling, bashing EPA, and rehashing climate science for the umpteenth time. Democrats would rather play to type, run scared, and let teacup-rattling troglodytes set the terms of the debate.
As the Pew-Bloomberg report noted: "Investors have noted ongoing uncertainty in United States policy as a key reason that capital is sitting on the sidelines, or looking for certainty and opportunity abroad. Concerns include a lack of clarity on the direction of energy policy, uncertainty surrounding continuation of key financial incentives … and disproportionate government support for century-old fossil energy sources."
Here are the details:
Total invested in the clean energy sector last year: $243 billion. Of that amount, the top three were China: $54.4 billion, Germany: $41.2 billion, and the U.S.: $34.4 billion. China’s spending, fueled by an ambition to dominate the clean energy manufacturing and power generation sector, is equal to the global total for 2004.
Among the energy technologies, solar investment grew fastest, by 53 percent to $79 billion. Installation of solar generating capacity totaled 17,000 megawatts last year. Wind remained the leading recipient of investment capital, $95 billion in G-20 member countries, which resulted in 40,000 megawatts of wind capacity installations, 17,000 of which were in China.
Total global capacity of wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, small hydro, and ocean energy – 388,000 megawatts, equal to about one-third of total U.S. electric power generating capacity as of 2009.
Despite continuing its global lead in venture capital and private equity investment, the U.S."will have substantial difficulty keeping pace with China" and other hungry competitors "absent adoption of predictable, ambitious, long-term clean energy policies," the report noted.
Money goes where it’s welcome. Money to invest in clean energy is more welcome in Asia and Europe than it is in the U.S. – that’s the message, unintended or not, that investors get when leaders of the world’s largest economy can’t figure out what sort of energy future the U.S. should have and show no inclination that they’re willing to have a serious debate on the matter.
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