According to the report, now on its sixth edition, at the end of 2017 54 developing countries of the 103 surveyed had recorded an investment in at least one utility-scale wind project. This figure is up from just 20 a decade ago.
"The 103 countries included in this year’s Climatescope installed 29GW of onshore wind in 2011, which was then a mature sector in some key markets like Brazil, but just 2GW of solar. This compares to 75GW of wind and 69GW of solar net capacity additions in 2017, the first year emerging markets installed more renewables than fossil capacity," the report stated.
The list of BNEF’s emerging markets includes all non-OECD countries, so includes the like of major wind markets China, India and Brazil.
The report claims a majority of activity in clean power deployment now takes place in the 100 countries the OECD classified as less developed, plus key energy markets Turkey, Chile and Mexico.
Auctions were also playing a key role in these markets and helping to bring down the cost of wind and solar capacity, in particular.
A decade ago, the report claimed, these less-developed markets were discouraged from building clean energy projects, as they were too expensive.
Reverse clean energy auctions took place in over 35 of the "emerging" markets in 2017, BNEF said, estimating a levelised cost of energy for wind and solar of below $50/MWh in "many developing nations".
In 2017, developing countries — including India and China — invested $143 billion in clean energy, including $62 billion in wind.
Chile was ranked as the top scorer in BNEF’s Climatescope survey, combining strong policies, a track record in clean energy and a commitment to decarbonise.
The top five also included India, Jordan, Brazil and Rwanda, respectively.
