The US has retained its title as the top market for clean energy investments in audit firm EY’s biannual Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI), but India, the UK and France are catching up.
The index, which was released today (18 May), shows that President Joe Biden’s actions to foster a renewable energy expansion since he took office in January have helped keep the US in top position since it first leapfrogged China last year.
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It notes that Biden pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 52% by 2030 last month, based on 2005 levels. The US also installed 19GW of solar last year, an increase of 43% on 2019’s installations, and also added 2.2GW of battery energy storage systems.
While China has kept its second place ranking, India, the UK and France have all moved up the leaderboard. Australia meanwhile while has plummeted to sixth place since the last edition of the RECAI, with EY’s report noting that the Australian minister for energy and emissions reduction recently ruled out state support for an electric vehicle rollout, which it said will “negatively impact future demand for renewable electricity”.
Although the US takes top position, India ranked highest in the Index on solar PV attractiveness with a score of 62.7, higher than both China’s 60.3 and the US’ 57.6
EY global power & utilities corporate finance leader Ben Warren and global tenewables leader Arnaud de Giovanni said developed nations must increase their spend on research and development in the sector to around US$10 billion annually to support the global energy transition. They added that stronger commitments and policies at government level could also “help increase funding opportunities for institutional investors and insurers.”