In 2015 Renewable Energy Added As Much Electricity As Africa

Need cheering up? Just read these numbers.
Peter Byrne/PA Wire

The growth of renewable energy is increasing faster than ever before with record levels of investment and output being achieved in 2015.

To put that in an even more positive way, we're now investing more money into green energy than coal and natural gas combined.

Also for the first time, emerging economies spent more money on renewable energy than the rich.

Moises Castillo/AP

The findings come courtesy of the Renewables Global Status Report and show that as renewable energy increases, the cost of producing it goes down.

The report revealed that last year 147 gigawatts of renewable energy was added to the global grid, roughly equivalent to Africa's generating capacity for that year.

Despite investment in green energy reaching $286bn last year a large part of it came from smaller emerging economies.

In fact when measured against each country's GDP the biggest investors were in fact Mauritania, Honduras, Uruguay and Jamaica.

Chris Carlson/AP

Christine Lins, executive secretary of REN21 who produced the report said: "They are the ones with the biggest increases in energy demand, and the fact that we had this turning point really shows the business case - and that is really a remarkable development."

The UK and Europe may have also seen a drop in investment but that didn't stop green power from being the leading source of electricity, producing some 44 per cent of EU capacity in 2015.

Similar stories are being told in the US where big businesses have made enormous commitments to renewables.

Over 150 companies employing a total of 11 million people have committed to becoming 100 per cent powered by renewable energy.

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