14 DAY TRIAL // Recent reports on the amount of money that went into developing renewable energy sources throughout the year 2011 show that a staggering $257 billion (€204 billion) made their way into this rapidly growing green industry.
Ever more interesting is that this figure was recorded during a period of economic turmoil, as due to the global financial crisis developed countries were faced with having quite a strain put on their usually reliable fiscal budgets.
Apparently, most of this money was used to develop customer-oriented sectors, such as electricity, heating, cooling and transportation. The end result is that roughly 17% of the world's energy demands are now met by renewable power sources.
According to ScienceDaily, in spite of such major investments, the biomass industry has somewhat declined, as most businessmen and homeowners decided to go for solar energy. It now seems that around 200 million households throughout the globe rely on solar panels when it comes to heating up water for personal use.
To use plain figures: in 2011, around $147 billion (roughly €117 billion) went into solar energy alone, with Italy, Germany, China, the UK and the US taking the lead in terms of large-scale rooftop photovoltaic installations.
Naturally, as more and more people went solar, this particular market was faced with considerable price drops, which means that some manufacturers went bankrupt or forced to rethink their entire business agenda.
As well as this, it seems that around 50 countries made significant investments in developing wind energy, whilst considerable sums also went into hydro- and geothermal energy.
Specialists argue that there are three very simple explanations for this ever-increasing interest in renewable energy sources.
First of all, as far as environmental considerations go, there is the dire need to put fossil fuels behind us, especially given the fact that gas emissions have been proved to reach record numbers.
Secondly, from an economic viewpoint, renewable energy sources are proved to be much more budget-friendly once installed and put to work, both because the power they produce is rather cheap and because the development of this industry lead to about 5 million new jobs being made available.
Thirdly, there is a growing interest in introducing undeveloped countries to the perks of a modern, electrified life-style, and the best way to do so is to go green from the very beginning.
Professor Dr. Udo Steffens, the president of Frankfurt School, explains that “Renewables are starting to have a very consequential impact on energy supply, but we're also witnessing many classic symptoms of rapid sectoral growth -- big successes, painful bankruptcies, international trade disputes and more. This is an important moment for strategic policymaking as winners in the new economy form and solidify.”
All in all, it seems that going green has beneficial consequences both on the environment and on the development of human society, and we hope that the future will bring us other such major investments in this industrial sector.