Plunging oil prices won't dent global clean power investment

Lima

WHILE Opec is helping drive down global prices for crude, it's having less success squeezing the US$250 billion clean power industry.

Green energy will receive almost 60 per cent of the US$5 trillion expected to be invested in new power plants over the next decade, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). That's because the US, China, Japan and the European Union are all pushing for global limits on greenhouse gases and promoting alternatives to fossil fuels.

The effort has resulted in local and national incentive policies for renewable power around the world, effectively insulating the industry from market fluctuations such as the almost 40 per cent plunge in crude oil since June. So while drillers cla…