Renewables are growing despite low oil prices

A decreasing oil price leads intuitively to an inhibited growth of the renewable energy market. Yet, the application of both oil and renewable sources does not overlap as much as one would think. While oil plays mostly a crucial role in transportation, renewable energy sources such as wind or solar are mainly employed to generate electricity. Moreover, the growth of renewables can further be attributed to favorable government policies, the falling prices for electricity for renewable sources and the increasing willingness of the private sectored to limit its carbon footprint (see our article about RE100). According to a talk by Michael Liebreich, Chairman of the Advisory Board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 380 billion USD was invested in renewables (including large scale hydro) worldwide in 2015. Notably, roughly the same amount of capital committed to oil and gas projects has been cancelled since 2014.