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South Africa A Lone Bright Spot For Q1 Clean Energy Investment

South Africa A Lone Bright Spot For Q1 Clean Energy Investment

From BusinessSpectator.

South Africa was one of the few bright spots for clean energy investment in the first quarter of 2015.

Thanks to its auction program, it attracted $3.1 billion in the first quarter compared with nearly nothing a year earlier.

The top solar thermal project in South Africa by debt in the first quarter was the 332-megawatt Nordsee 1 offshore wind farm, with $891 million in investment, according to the 2015 Clean Energy & Energy Smart Technologies League Tables.

In second place was Abengoa’s 100-megawatt Xina Solar One plant for $617 million and in third place was the 100-megawatt Illangalethu Karoshoek Solar Valley project for $610 million.

Worldwide, clean energy investment in the first quarter of 2015 saw $50.5 billion in investment — a 15-percent reduction over a year earlier, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance statistics.

Activity tends to be on the quiet side in the first quarter, which has seen the lowest investment in clean energy each year since 2005, the result of the market recovering from the end-of-year rush.

While the slump in oil prices appears not to have hit clean energy financing hard, exchange-rate developments may have made it more difficult to match 2014 dollar investments. The U.S. dollar has strengthened 15 percent against a bunch of currencies in the last year and 29 percent against the euro.

The first quarter of 2014 also saw more lucrative offshore wind investments than 2015.

Read more at BusinessSpectator.