Globally, clean energy investment and finance reached $243 million in 2010, up 630 percent from 2004 and 30 percent from 2009. Germany experienced a 100 percent increase in investment, to $41.2 billion, trouncing the U.S., which came in at $34 billion despite having nearly four times the population of Germany.
China, of course, was number one, with $54.4 billion in investment, up 39 percent since 2009.
Solar grew faster than every other area in 2009-2010, and came close to closing the gap with wind, falling just $16 billion behind wind's total investment of $95 billion. Within solar the fastest growing area was residential-scale photovoltaic panels (the kind you put on your roof).
