Renewables continue on record course worldwide

31.03.2025

Source: E & M powernews

The International Renewable Energy Agency has presented its annual report on the global expansion of renewable energy generation capacity.

Global power generation capacity based on renewables increased by 585,200 MW or 15 percent to 4.448 million MW over the past year. This means that 2024 was the largest expansion ever achieved in a single year. This is according to the "Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025", which has now been published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), Abu Dhabi. According to Irena, China, the USA and the EU accounted for 84% of all new installations.

Photovoltaic systems achieved the greatest growth in 2024. Global solar power generation capacity increased by 451,900 MW or 32% to 1.866 million MW in 2024.

At the same time, the output of wind power plants increased by 113,200 MW, or 11%, to 1.133 million MW. This means that solar and wind alone accounted for 96.6 percent of new renewable capacity. Hydropower accounted for 2.6 percent and bioenergy for 0.8 percent of the increase in capacity. Geothermal and marine energy together accounted for less than 0.1 percent.

This is the situation in the portfolio

Solar energy is the green technology with the largest generation capacity worldwide - ahead of hydropower and wind energy. By technology, the capacity of renewable electricity producers at the end of 2024 was as follows

• Solar energy: 41.9 percent
• Hydropower: 28.8 percent
• Wind energy: 25.5 percent
• Bioenergy: 3.4 percent
• Geothermal and marine energy: 0.4 percent

This means that this generation capacity has almost quadrupled since the end of 2010. The capacity of wind power plants today is six times that of 14 years ago. The capacity of hydroelectric power plants (excluding pumped storage) has increased by 39 percent in the same period. The capacity of bioenergy plants has more than doubled. Geothermal energy increased by 54 percent. Marine energy doubled to 500 MW.

Capacity growth is spread across all regions of the world. The greatest momentum was recorded in Central and South-East Asia. This also applies to 2024: Asia - excluding Eurasia and the Middle East - accounted for 72% of the capacity growth. Europe accounted for 12% and Eurasia for 1.4% - including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey.

China ahead in all technologies - except one

China is not only the country with the world's highest energy and coal consumption. It also dominates the installed green electricity capacity. At 373,600 MW, new installations in China accounted for 64% of global growth in 2024. This means that a total of 1.83 million MW was installed in China at the end of 2024. This corresponds to a global share of 41%.

In terms of the amount of installed renewable energy capacity for power generation at the end of 2024, the ranking of countries is as follows

• China: 1,827,700 MW
• USA: 428,400 MW
• Brazil: 213,900 MW
• India: 204,300 MW
• Germany: 178,700 MW
• Japan: 132,300 MW
• Canada: 110,500 MW
• Spain: 88,500 MW
• France: 74,300 MW
• Italy: 72,100 MW

These ten countries therefore accounted for 75 percent of global renewable power plant capacity, with Germany alone accounting for 4 percent.

In terms of individual green technologies, China is also the leader in hydro, wind, solar and bioenergy. Brazil, the USA, Canada, Russia, India, Norway, Turkey, Japan and France ranked second to tenth for hydropower (excluding pumped storage).

It is worth noting that the hydroelectric power generation capacity on the entire continent of Africa, at 39,300 MW, is barely larger than Norway's 34,700 MW, despite the great potential that exists there.

Germany is on the podium for wind

The global country rankings for wind power and solar energy are different to those for hydropower. Germany is in third place for wind - behind China and the USA. China has also led the ranking for offshore wind since 2021 - followed by the UK and Germany.

Germany is in fifth place in the global ranking for solar capacity, behind China, the USA, India and Japan. Germany is also in fifth place for bioenergy in 2024 - behind China, Brazil, India and the USA. The top ten for geothermal energy are the USA, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey, New Zealand, Mexico, Kenya, Iceland, Italy and Japan.

The renewable capacity installed at the end of 2024 corresponded to 46 percent of the total installed power generation capacity worldwide.

Author: Hans-Wilhelm Schiffer