Biodiesel, Ethanol, Wind & Solar Set Records in 2008

clipped from domesticfuel.com This column posted on RenewableEnergyWorld.com from Ron Pernick, the co-founder and managing director of clean-tech research and publishing firm Clean Edge, Inc., which is publishing the newly-released Clean Energy Trends 2009 report, points out that the three major clean-energy sectors grew more than 50 percent from $75.8 billion in 2007 to $115.9 billion in revenues in 2008: The report shows that this significant increase in revenue was due to continued growth in solar PV, wind and biofuels deployment globally solar PV expanded from 2.8 gigawatts (GW) installed in 2007 to 4.2 GW in 2008. Over the same time frame, biofuels increased from 15 billion gallons to nearly 20 billion gallons, with Brazil using more gallons of ethanol than petrol-based gasoline for the first time. Wind power expanded from 20 GW installed in 2007 to 27 GW in 2008, with the U.S. becoming the largest generator of wind energy in the world after bringing on nearly a third of last year’s global total (8 GW).