The new Pew Clean Energy Program report (Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race?) mentions several times that the U.S. has quickly dropped to third place. The U.S. has more venture capital-backed investments compared to other countries by a large margin. Could that be a factor? I was tempted to focus on the U.S. or China, yet I could not avoid noticing a different and very positive point:

Italy saw 124 percent growth in clean energy investments in 2010, the 3rd highest among G-20 members. With almost $14 billion invested, Italy rose up the ranks of G-20 members to take the 4th position. Sixty-two percent ($8.6 billion) of 2010 clean energy investments were directed toward small scale solar projects. Italy also attracted a healthy $4.5 billion in wind energy investments. With high conventional energy prices and abundant solar resources, Italy is the first country in which solar power has achieved price parity with other electric sources.

Hey, look at Italy. First price parity nation for clean energy.

Italy’s 71% growth rate over five years also helped them jump from 8th position last year to 4th position. They achieved the #2 investment intensity (0.79% per $GDP) behind Germany. What do the Italians have to do to be in position to move ahead of the U.S. in the overall standings next year? Is America even threatened by Italy in the same way as Germany? Instead of emphasizing and exploring the Italian rush, or the German move to second place overall, the report makes the point that the West is losing to the East.

…it is clear that the center of gravity for clean energy investment is shifting from the West (Europe and the United States) to the East (China, India and other Asian nations).

Why go with an East, West theme?

A look at the entire globe shows five-year growth rates for countries in the southern hemisphere are even higher than Italy’s. Pew mentions high growth for Latin America, but the question also could be whether the whole southern hemisphere — Argentina (115%), South Africa (94%), Indonesia (89%), and Brazil (81%) — will see the same success as Italy. High one-year growth numbers in Argentina (568%) and Australia (104%) are likewise not just isolated to Latin America. It is curious to me to see an East, West divide when there is powerful (pun not intended) industry data from other countries to the South.

Another interesting issue is that Spain and the UK dramatically scaled-back clean energy investments, yet Italy did not. It may not be useful to depict the very different individual states into a unified West. Likewise, China alone may not be a good representation of the East.

Perhaps this Pew study is meant really to highlight the policies of China (“continued ability to attract record levels of clean energy investments”) and compare to the U.S. (“disproportionate government supports for century-old fossil fuel sources”). All other data points/countries could be just thrown in for good measure but are not meant to interfere with what seems to be the Pew (named after Sun Oil Company founder Joseph Pew) message to America: when China is winning the clean energy race, America is losing.