In absolute terms, the investment grew by USD 202 bn, of which China accounted for USD 134 bn becoming the global leader both in the rate of RES-based generation and in e-vehicles development. According to the Chinese Car Manufacturers Association, the sales of e-cars, hybrids and fuel-sales based cars in the PRC in 2024 grew by 35.5% achieving 12.9 mln vehicles. The share of cars using new energy sources (all types) in the PRC grew from 35.7% in 2023 up to 45.7% in 2024. Due to rapid development of e-transport in China the demand for gasoline went down: according to OPEC, in November 2024 this demand was 7% lower YoY.
According to the National PRC Energy Board, the installed capacity of the wind-powered plants in China grew by 18% (up to 520 GW) by the end of 2024, and the capacity of the solar panels – by 45% (up to 890 GW). This massive dissemination of the renewable energy creates the possibilities for building electrolysis units, which may help to utilize the excessive “clean” energy during the low demand hours. According to S&P Global Platts, the installed capacity of such electrolysis units in China during the period from 2022 to 2024 grew almost four times achieving 39 GW. However, the actual demand for “green” hydrogen still remains on a rather low level, due to which the electrolysis units’ utilization level last year was only 1.1 GW.
On top of RES and e-vehicles, grid infrastructure requiring up-grade due to commissioning of new capacities is another big sector for investment. According to BloombergNEF, CAPEX into building overhead power transmission lines and sub-stations by the end of the last year made USD 390 bn. On the other hand, the overall CAPEX into heat supply and industry electrification achieved USD 208 bn including procurement of heat pumps allowing for rejecting gas in the process of heat generation.
On the whole, global investment into energy tradition for the first time in history exceeded USD 2 trn. In the immediate future this indicator will be growing, and one of the reasons for that is dissemination of energy storage systems allowing for mitigating the risks of using renewable energy sources.
