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The U.S. saw $34 billion in private equity invested in the sector last year, a 51 percent jump from 2009, but China received $54.4 billion, increasing the lead it's held over the U.S. since 2008. Germany last year passed the U.S. with $41.2 billion invested in clean energy.

The electricity sector accounts for almost 35 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, and 40 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Over 80 percent of GHG emissions associated with electricity generation are from the combustion of coal, with nearly all the rest due to natural gas and petroleum combustion. U.S. electricity sales are split among the residential (37 percent), commercial (36 percent), and industrial (27 percent) sectors, where primary uses vary by sector. Over the past 30 years the U.S. electricity sector has become less carbon intensive, and the U.S. economy has grown less electricity-intensive.