AEI takes a global tack on the evolution of alternative energy. So that's why the latest world rankings as compiled by Ernst & Young merit close attention. The top 10 are;

1. Spain
2. USA
3. India
4. UK
5. Germany
6. Italy
7. France
Joint 8th - Portugal and China
Joint 10th - Ireland and Canada

As this article confirms, opportunities are now dropping off in Germany "a result of the declining availability of good sites for wind turbines" (as touched upon in my previous blog). If these attractiveness indices have a weakness, it is that they only cover 20 countries out of the world's total of 193.

Apart from that, the background story to absorb is that policy frameworks and economic systems are at least as important to the development of alternative energy as the actual underlying cost of the plant itself. The most inexpensive windpower in the world is produced in Texas (which just surpassed California in nameplate capacity) at 5 cents or less per kilowatt hour. The most expensive wind is in Germany at around 10 cents per kilowatt hour. The plant however is often identical. The cost of doing business in Germany, the high level of subsidy and low windspeeds would not be competitive in the US electricity marketplace.

International investors therefore need to keep a close eye on the political climate's conduciveness to alternative energy.

No technological evolution has ever been completely independent of politics.