IEA: Electricity powers past fossil fuels to claim investment top spot

Madeleine Cuff
clock • 4 min read

Clean energy investment as a share of global spend hits record high in 2016, driving electricity investment past oil, gas, and coal supply spend for the first time in history

The growing prominence of clean energy helped the electricity sector attract more capital than oil and gas extraction projects for the first time in history, according to new analysis released yesterday by...

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