China remained the leading investor and proponent of renewable energy in 2013, even as globalinvestment fell sharply, according to a report.

 

The Global Status Report, released on Wednesday by the Renewable Energy Policy Network forthe 21st Century, said China invested more in renewable energy than all of Europe did in 2013.

 

Although the renewables sector continues to offer huge growth potential in China, it also facessome constraints like overcapacity, experts said.

 

New investment in renewables fell for the second consecutive year globally in 2013, partlybecause of uncertainties over incentives in Europe and the United States, as well as sharpreductions in technology costs.

 

Investment from developed countries fell to the lowest level in four years, with Europe'sinvestment in renewables falling by 44 percent in 2013 compared to the levels in 2012.

 

Last year also saw an end to eight consecutive years of rising renewable energy investment indeveloping countries. Total investment by developing countries in renewables was $93 billion in2013, down 14 percent from 2012.

 

China's new investment in renewable energy was $56.3 billion in 2013, accounting for 61 percentof the developing-country investment in renewables.

 

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University,said growth was further depressed by the economic slowdown in developed countries and therapid growth of the previous years.

 

Ten years ago, most of the deployment and manufacturing of renewable energy occurred inEurope, the US and Japan. Since then, markets, manufacturing and investment have shifted toother regions, said the report.

 

"China has become the world leader in renewable manufacturing and installed capacity, havingincreased investment in the sector nearly every year for the past decade," it said.

 

Global new investment in renewable power and fuels was around $214.4 billion in 2013,according to data provided by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, down 14 percent relative to2012, and 23 percent lower than the record level in 2011.

 

China was home to about 24 percent of the world's renewable power capacity, including anestimated 260 gigawatts of hydropower.

 

The solar PV market, however, had a record year. China saw spectacular growth, accounting fornearly one-third of global capacity added, followed by Japan and the United States.

 

"As a result of the weak outward market, the solar installed capacity increased significantly inChina during the past two years. But the industry still faces problems like overcapacity andexcessive reliance on overseas markets," said Lin.

 

Most of China's renewable energy investments were in solar and wind power projects. At thesame time, it was also the leader in terms of the spending on utility-scale projects, followeddistantly by the US and the United Kingdom.

 

By the end of 2013, China, the United States, Brazil, Canada and Germany remained the topcountries for total installed renewable electric capacity.

 

New renewable power capacity surpassed new fossil fuel and nuclear capacity in China for thefirst time in 2013, the report said.