By Nicholas Parat

Since BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster begun on April 20, we have all been witnessing how dirty and costly oil can be. Today, however, we will take a look at the leaders that are ushering in a new worldwide industry—clean energy. According to the Pew Charitable Center, the clean energy sector in some of the world’s largest economies has seen explosive investment growth, since 2005. In fact, it is up 230 percent and is projected to grow by another $200 Billion by the end of 2010. Below is the list of the world’s top ten leaders in renewable energy investment.

China

For the first time, China, the country with one of the world's most dismal environmental records, leads the G20 in clean energy investments. In 2009, China invested $34.6 billion (USD) in clean alternatives. That makes up 30.5% of the G-20 nations’ total investment in renewable energy. From 2005 to 2009, the vast majority of that investment, 71.1%, was allocated to wind power. Solar energy received only 8% of the investment, but China is still one of the world’s largest solar-panel producer.

The United States

The U.S. came in second, with 16.4% of the G-20 nation’s total investment. Although there is not much manufacturing of alternative energy sources done on U.S. soil, the country dominates venture finance and technology innovation. The United States invested $18.6 billion for clean energy, in 2009. The total U.S clean energy investments included wind power (43.1%) and bio-fuel, with 47m liters of ethanol produced, over the past four years.

The United Kingdom

The U.K., coming in third, has also investing primarily on wind energy and allocated 57.1% of its $11.2 billion 2009 clean energy budget to wind towers. The U.K. intends to procure 20% of its electricity and 10% of its fuel needs from renewable energy by the end of 2010.

The European Union

The EU-27 countries, profiled together, invested $10.8 billion in renewable energy in 2009.That makes up 9.5% of G-20 clean energy investments. Again, the vast majority, 62.9%, of clean energy investment went to wind power.

Spain

Spain is ranked fifth with $10.4 billion in the clean energy investment in 2009. Spain went against the wind energy trend and invested 60.6% of its budget on solar energy. Wind energy received (34.2%) of the country’s total renewable energy investment from 2005 to 2009.

Brazil

Coming in sixth among G-20 members, Brazil invested $7.4 billion in clean energy in 2009. Brazil is still the worlds leading ethanol producer, relative to the size of its economy. Over the past four years, Brazil is reported to have the second-highest investment growth rate. Brazil has the world’s largest ethanol infrastructure, relative to the size of its economy and produced over 30 billion liters of sugar based ethanol in 2009.

Germany

Germany came in seventh place with $4.3 billion worth of clean energy investments in 2009. That is up more than 18% from previous years. Germany’s clean energy investments from 2005 to 2009 were divided between solar energy (44.3%) and wind power (31.2%).

Canada

In eighth place, Canada invested $3.3 billion in its clean energy sectors. Most of the investment, 60%, went to wind power. Mini-hydro electric power is another leading sector that Canada has been investing in over the past four years.

Italy

Coming in ninth place is Italy. The country invested $2.6 billion in clean energy in 2009 and its investments have increased by 110%, in the past five years. Wind power was the key clean energy sector for Italy during the past four years getting 61.6% of all clean energy investments.

India

India is ranked tenth on the list with $2.3 billion invested in the country’s renewable energy industry, in 2009. Wind power received 59.5% of India’s clean energy investments, from 2005 to 2009.