Goldman Sachs will today announce plans to invest $40bn in clean energy projects over the coming decade, after identifying the sector as one of the biggest opportunities to emerge since it started investing in emerging markets more than a decade ago.

The bank plans to channel client money and a smaller amount of its own funds towards investment and financing in solar, wind, hydro, biofuels, biomass conversion, energy efficiency, energy storage, green transportation, efficient materials, LED lighting and transmission projects, news agency Reuters reported.

Goldman Sachs economists believe demand for these technologies is set to take-off as countries with large manufacturing sectors such as China and Brazil look to cut their emissions.

Stuart Bernstein, head of Goldman’s clean technology and renewables investment banking group, said: “This is another emerging opportunity we think will be quite large.”

Goldman already has form in clean tech, having raised $4.8bn and co-invested $500m in the sector last year. It has also trumped its 2005 target to invest in and finance $1bn of environmentally friendly projects, having reached $24bn of financing and $4bn of investment by the end 2011.

But some analysts suspected the target, which levels out to $4bn a year, could be part of a charm offensive to restore the bank’s reputation after it suffered a series of setbacks since the financial crisis.