Bloomberg New Energy Finance Update Delivers Good News For Green Energy

According to BNEF, "The corrected figures show that global investment in clean energy was $73.5 billion in the second quarter of 2015, substantially higher than reported on Friday. This number is 0.2 percent down on the equivalent quarter of 2014, and takes the total for the first half of 2015 to $127.9 billion, down just 3 percent on H1 2014."

• Investment in China was $27.9 billion, up 15 percent on the same quarter a year earlier
• The U.S. invested $12.2 billion, up 3 percent on Q2 2014
• Europe invested $12.7 billion, down 23 percent
• India invested $2.2 billion, up 75 percent on the same quarter last year
• Brazil invested $1 billion, down 50 percent
• The Americas excluding the U.S. invested $3.7 billion, down 3 percent on Q2 2014
• Asia-Oceania excluding India and China invested $12.5 billion, up 8 percent. Of this, Japan saw investment of $8.3 billion, down 8 percent on the equivalent quarter last year.

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The report also published a breakdown of green technology investments:

• Of the different technologies, solar enjoyed the highest investment, at $41.9 billion in Q2 2015, up 23 percent on the second quarter of 2014
• Wind saw investment of $27.8 billion, down 13 percent

• Among categories of investment, asset finance of utility-scale renewable energy projects totaled $49.5 billion, down 5 percent on Q2 2014
• Small-scale solar projects saw investment of $20.4 billion in Q2 2015, up 29 percent on a year earlier
• Venture capital and private equity investment was $871 million, down 38 percent on the same quarter last year
• Public markets investment in clean energy was $4.5 billion, down 9 percent on the equivalent quarter

Notably, aggregate solar investment was actually up 23 percent for the first half of 2015, rather than lagging as initially reported.

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Small Scale Solar Shines

The small-scale solar project growth rate did not change from the original report, growing at 29 percent Y/Y, apparently at a faster rate than larger utility scale projects.

According to Bloomberg, "Small solar projects of less than 1MW remain on course for a record year, as countries such as the U.S., Japan and China, and other parts of the developing world, respond to the improved cost-effectiveness of rooftop photovoltaics after the price falls of recent years."

This remains good news for investors in SolarCity Corp SCTY and Vivint Solar Inc VSLR, the companies with the largest market share for U.S. distributed rooftop solar installations.

Investor Takeaway

The U.S. investment in sustainable energy projects was originally reported at $9.4 billion, or down 4 percent over 1Q14, and down a whopping 21 percent in 2Q15 compared to 2Q14.

The good news is that for 1H 2015, U.S. investment in green energy projects was actually $12.2 billion, or an increase of 3 percent over the same period last year.