Even with low fossil fuel prices, renewable investment hit record highs

By Carolyn Beeler, PRI.

Oil prices hit 12-year lows this month as coal and natural gas prices remain low as well.

But seemingly counterintuitively, renewable energy investments were at record highs in 2015, climbing 4 percent to nearly $330 billion worldwide according to a recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.  

"People are beginning to appreciate that actually, the renewables revolution will go on even if oil, coal and gas keep on getting cheaper," said Bloomberg New Energy Finance senior analyst Angus McCrone. “I think it certainly marks a change from around the 2007 period, where people equated interest in renewables with high oil prices and saw the two as very much hand-in-glove."

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