Renewable investment surges in emerging economies, BNEF study finds

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
India joined China, Brazil, Chile and south Africa in the top five most attractive markets. Source: IBC Solar

Investment in clean energy surged in emerging economies during 2014, the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Climatescope report has found.

According to BNEF, 2014 was the first year that more than half of all investment in renewable energy was for projects based in emerging economies.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis

Photovoltaics International is now included.

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
  • Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
  • Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

The Climatescope study monitors investment in 55 developing countries including Brazil, Mexico, India and China. The latest release tallied clean energy investment worth US$126 billion during 2014, up 39% on 2013 levels. Investment between emerging economies accounted for US$79 billion.

The financing equated to 50.4GW of new generating capacity with China responsible for 35GW of this.

Climatescope also issues an investment attractiveness index with China comfortably at the top. Brazil, Chile, South Africa and India, respectively, make up the rest of the top five. With runaway economic growth in China and Brazil cooling, the report notes that the levels achieved are even more impressive.

India’s states were also individually ranked with all well behind the national government’s score. West Bengal, the lowest ranked state, had a score lower than Ethiopia. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were the top two Indian states.

The study, which is supported by the UK and US governments, considers each country’s policy framework and electricity market, the existing clean energy value chain, the cost of finance and the robustness of efforts to reduce emissions. The full dataset can be downloaded from BNEF.

25 November 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe continues to be the place to leverage a network that has been made over more than 10 years, to build critical partnerships to develop solar projects throughout the region.

Read Next

September 1, 2025
California's solar and storage association has called for US$10 million fines for PG&E and SCE for failing to approve residential solar and storage projects applications quickly.
August 28, 2025
Venture capital firm Pacific Channel has launched Fund V, which targets 10GW of solar, wind, and energy storage in New Zealand.
August 26, 2025
ABO Energy has closed its first syndicated loan agreement worth €240 million (US$279.8 million) to develop and construct more wind, solar and storage project.
August 26, 2025
Daqo New Energy has posted gross losses of US$81.4 million in Q2 2025, up from losses of US$81.5 million in Q1.
August 26, 2025
Investment in utility-scale solar fell by 19% in the first half of 2025, as global investment in all renewable energy projects grew by 10%.
Premium
August 22, 2025
Radovan Kopecek and Joris Libal examine the technological and economic factors driving PV’s ascendancy, with emphasis on bifacial BC modules.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
September 16, 2025
Athens, Greece
Solar Media Events
September 30, 2025
Seattle, USA
Solar Media Events
October 1, 2025
London, UK
Solar Media Events
October 2, 2025
London,UK
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines