Global investment in renewable energy capacity hit $282bn last year boosted by a string of offshore wind deals, according to BloombergNEF.
The figure was up 1% from $280.2bn in 2018, thanks to a second busier half of the year.
A late surge in offshore wind financing took investment in the sector to $29.9bn, up 19% on 2018.
Offshore wind farms reaching financial close in the fourth quarter of 2019 included the 432MW Neart na Gaoithe project off the Scottish coast at $3.4bn, the 376MW Formosa 2 Miaoli development off Taiwan, at $2bn, and the 500MW Fuzhou Changle C installation in the East China Sea, at $1.5bn.
The first of France’s offshore wind projects to be financed, the 480MW, $2.5bn Saint Nazaire, got its go-ahead in the third quarter.
BNEF wind research chief Tom Harries said: “Offshore wind developers in China brought forward 15 projects to beat a scheduled expiry of that country’s feed-in tariff. We expect the sector’s global momentum to continue in 2020, with the focus on gigawatt-scale projects in the British North Sea and the first commercial arrays off the US east coast.”
Combined, onshore and offshore wind monopolised investments with $138.2bn globally, up 6%. Solar followed at $131.1bn, down 3%.
Falling capital costs in wind and solar meant that the two combined are likely to have seen around 180GW added last year, up some 20GW on 2018, BNEF found.
China was the biggest investor in renewables, at $83.4bn in 2019, but this was 8% down on 2018 and the lowest since 2013.
The US was the second-largest investing country in renewable energy capacity, at $55.5bn, up 28% on 2018, as wind and solar developers raced to qualify for federal tax credits.
BNEF Americas head Ethan Zindler said: “It’s notable that in this third year of the Trump presidency, which has not been particularly supportive of renewables, US clean energy investment set a new record by a country mile.
“These technologies are more cost-competitive than ever, and the fact that there was a tax credit step-down on the horizon made the market particularly busy in 2019.”
Europe slipped behind the US in 2019, investing $54.3bn in renewables capacity, down 7%. Spain led the way with $8.4bn, up 25% on 2018 and the highest annual figure for that country since 2011.
The UK invested $5.3bn, down 40% and its lowest since 2007. Germany was down 30% at $4.4 bn, its lowest since 2004. The Netherlands was up 25% at $5.5bn, France was 3% higher at $4.4bn, and Ukraine 56% up at $3.4bn.
Japan invested $16.5bn in renewable capacity, mainly solar, in 2019, down 10%, while Australia committed $5.6bn, down 40%. India put $9.3bn into green energy, 14% less than in 2018.
The United Arab Emirates invested a record $4.5bn almost all of it for the 950MW Al Maktoum solar thermal and photovoltaic complex in Dubai.
In Latin America, Brazil lifted renewable energy capacity investment by 74% to $6.5bn last year, while Mexico committed $4.3bn, up 17% and Chile $4.9bn, up fourfold.