Renewable Energy InvestmentsWill Soar to $200 Billion Worldwide in 2010

Global investments in alternative energy projects will rise nearly 50 percent in 2010, climbing from $130 billion this year to $200 billion next year. In a survey of the green energy market, Bloomberg News reports that despite the dim prospects of forging a climate treaty in Copenhagen this month, companies and governments are moving rapidly ahead to build wind power farms, large solar arrays, and other green energy projects. Thanks in large part to state-funded economic stimulus programs, government spending on green energy will more than double in 2010 to about $60 billion, according to the report. Analysts said that with China, the European Union (EU), and individual U.S. states aggressively adopting regulations and incentives promoting green energy, the field will continue to rapidly develop even if a global climate treaty is not signed. “Country by country, state by state, regulations will continue to spur demand independent of what might happen in Copenhagen,” said one U.S. clean technology analyst. Major renewable energy projects are now underway across the globe, Bloomberg reported, including a $900 million offshore wind farm being built by CLP, Hong Kong’s biggest electricity supplier.