Global clean energy investment (excluding large hydro) totaled $329 billion in 2015, a new world record, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. This achievement is particularly impressive given the headwinds faced by the clean energy industry, including the plunge in fossil fuels prices and economic weakness in Europe. 

In a statement Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said: “These figures are a stunning riposte to all those who expected clean energy investment to stall on falling oil and gas prices. Wind and solar power are now being adopted in many developing countries as a natural and substantial part of the generation mix: they can be produced more cheaply than often high wholesale power prices; they reduce a country’s exposure to expected future fossil fuel prices; and above all they can be built very quickly to meet unfulfilled demand for electricity. And it is very hard to see these trends going backwards, in the light of December’s Paris Climate Agreement.”
 
Preliminary figures indicate that wind and solar PV installations grew 30% worldwide in 2015 compared to 2014. The combined total of new wind (64 gigawatts) and solar (57 gigawatts) capacity accounted for around half of the net capacity added in all generation technologies (fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable) globally in 2015.

In December 2015, the U.S. Congress extending the Production Tax Credit for wind to 2019 and the Investment Tax Credit for solar to 2022.

The  package could produce about $73 billion in incremental wind and solar investment and 37 gigawatts of new wind and solar capacity — a 56% boost to the industry — over the 2016-21 period, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates. Details on the extended residential renewable energy tax credits are here.