The United States ranks as the most attractive market for renewable energy investment, according to a new ranking by IHS Markit.
The Global Renewables Markets Attractiveness Rankings tracks attractiveness for investment in offshore wind, onshore wind and PV. It placed the United States in the number one spot for 2020, citing the country’s sound market fundamentals and the availability of an attractive—though phasing down—support scheme.
The ranking evaluated each country on the basis of current policy framework, market fundamentals, investor friendliness, infrastructure readiness, revenue risks and return expectations, easiness to compete and the overall opportunity size for each market. Each market was scored in individual categories for solar PV, onshore wind, offshore wind and an overall renewables score is calculated.
The overall country rankings were based on a combined score for offshore wind, onshore wind, and solar PV that weighted the technologies based on their expected levels of installations over the next decade.
Mainland China, which accounted for over half of the world’s total non-hydro renewables additions last year, ranked third on the attractiveness ranking, weighed down by difficulties in accessing the market.
Germany finished second, while France and Spain secured the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, based on strong market fundamentals backed by stable procurement mechanisms and long-term clean energy targets. Similar factors boosted Japan to eighth place and the Netherlands to ninth.
Countries with a strong impetus towards offshore wind got a significant boost, as IHS said the generation source is expected to be the fastest growing renewable energy technology in the next decade.
Strong ambitions and stable procurement initiatives in India, and availability of attractive subsidies and a high degree of investor friendliness in Australia propelled these markets to the sixth and seventh spots on the list.
The U.S. also retained the top ranking in individual technology rankings for investment attractiveness for solar PV and onshore wind . The United Kingdom failed to crack the top 10 in the combined rankings due to its relative lack of support for developing onshore wind and PV. It ranked individually as the most attractive market for offshore wind investment.
