India's top five emerging markets for clean energy investment in 2019 for the first time

According to the Clean Energy Emerging Market Report released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, India became the world's most attractive emerging market for clean energy investment in 2019, which is also the first time that India ranks first
in the world in this field.

In addition, Chile, Brazil, China and Kenya round out the top five
.

India

The Indian government's strong policy framework and abundant capacity expansion lifted India from second place in 2018 to first
place in 2019.
The Indian government has set one of the world's most ambitious renewable energy targets, aiming to achieve 175GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2022, of which 100GW comes from solar, 60GW from wind and 15GW
from other sources.

India also held the most competitive and largest auction
of clean energy power generation contracts.
These led to the purchase of 19GW of equipment
in 2018 alone.
Renewables, excluding large-scale hydropower, account for 81GW of India's total capacity of 356GW.

Since 2017, India's renewable energy capacity has surpassed coal's
.
While the 2.
3GW of new wind capacity added in 2018 was 44% below 2017 levels, 9GW of solar installations was the best year to date, including utility-scale, rooftop and off-grid capacity
.
The decline in wind power was partly due to the market shifting from reliance on feed-in tariffs to reverse auctions
.

Chile

Chile's unique natural resources, as well as (until recently) stable government and a healthy economy, make it attractive
to clean energy investors.
The government has set ambitious long-term clean energy targets and has begun implementing policies
to make renewable energy more price-competitive.
Goals include 20% of utility electricity generation from clean energy by 2025, 60% by 2035, and 70% renewable electricity generation
by 2050.

However, it should be noted that recent events have undoubtedly called into question
the stability of the Chilean market.

At the end of 2018, Chile currently had 2.
3GW of solar capacity in operation and 1.
5GW of wind capacity, accounting for 16% of total installed renewable energy capacity, and renewable energy (excluding large hydropower) accounted for 15%
of all electricity generation.
Chile's wind power surged from 1.
4 TWh in 2014 to 3.
6 TWh in 2018, while solar production surged from 0.
5 TWh to 5.
1 TWh, both accounting for 11% of total electricity generation in 2018, up from almost no
five years ago.

Brazil

Brazil remains one of the leading emerging markets for renewable energy applications and is the largest electricity market in Latin America, with a total installed capacity of 162GW
in 2018.
Brazil remains highly dependent on hydropower, which accounts for about 65% of the country's
total electricity generation.
In 2018, the proportion of non-hydropower renewable energy generation increased significantly, reaching 18%.

Brazil has a comprehensive and attractive clean energy policy framework and has spearheaded competitive auctions to award clean energy contracts, resulting in more than 28GW of renewable energy contracts
signed between 2009 and 2018.

Given that the worst of its economic crisis has passed and two auctions are planned for 2019-21 per year, clean energy looks poised to return to growth
.
Brazil attracted nearly $56 billion in new asset financing for clean energy plants in 2009-18, the largest
amount in Latin America during the same period.

China

A decade of near-non-stop growth in China's clean energy came to an
abrupt end in 2018.
Key policy changes led to a decline in new investment to $86 billion in 2018 from $122 billion the previous year, and new construction of clean energy from 76GW to 71GW
.
For much of the past decade, generous feed-in tariffs are coming to an end
.
Still, China represents a land of
great potential for renewable energy.

Although coal still dominates China's power system, accounting for 54% of total installed capacity and 65% of total electricity generation in 2018, both figures are down nearly 10 percentage points from 2012, illustrating the speed of
change.
Wind and solar now account for 20% of China's total installed capacity and 8% of total electricity generation, up from just 13% and 3%
respectively in 2014.

China's power grid companies have adopted a variety of approaches to integrating more renewable energy, including power generation rights trading, expanded interregional power transmission, flexible retrofitting of heat generators, and reduced kinetic energy reserves
.
In 2018, the national average curtailment rate reached the lowest level in history, with wind power curtailment rate of 7.
2% and solar energy curtailment rate of 3.
0%.

Kenya

A clean energy investment boom in 2018 and Kenya's extensive renewable energy value chain put the country in fifth
.
Kenya is progressively increasing the contribution
of non-large hydropower renewables to the grid by adding more solar, wind and geothermal energy.
In 2018, non-hydro renewables accounted for 38% of the country's installed capacity and 49%
of electricity generation.
This will continue to grow
as clean energy investment hit a new record in 2018, with geothermal, wind and solar power plants attracting $1.
4 billion in investment.

The country is switching from feed-in tariffs to reverse auctions, which is the main means
of stimulating new construction projects.
Parliament approved draft legislation in August 2018 to make this change, but final action
is still needed.
According to the newly offered feed-in tariff, the government has received applications
for more than 4GW of clean energy projects.
While this demonstrated the strength of the local development channel, it went far beyond what Kenya's grid was prepared to absorb at the time
.