Despite sluggish growth in most developed countries and the on-going debt crisis in Europe, renewable energy investment showed solid growth of 17 percent in 2011 over the year before, says a new status report on renewable energy.

In 2011, renewable energy investment hit a new record of $257 billion, according to “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment,” which was released Monday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  That brings the total investment in the sector over the past five years to nearly a trillion dollars. From 2006 to 2011, annual investments nearly doubled.

There had been concerns that “the financial crisis and the economic turmoil in certain parts of the world would put a dent in the overall investment flows