Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity

For the first time in history, renewable energy makes up nearly half of all the world’s installed power capacity. The International Renewable Energy Agency’s Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026, released April 1, confirms that renewables reached 49.4% of total global power capacity by the end of 2025 — up from 46.3% just one year earlier. That three-point jump in a single year reflects an energy system in structural transition, not incremental adjustment.

• Global renewable power capacity reached 5,149 gigawatts by end of 2025 after the addition of 692 gigawatts — the largest annual addition ever recorded — according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
• Solar alone added 511 gigawatts in 2025 — more than the entire installed solar capacity of the world just eight years ago — accounting for roughly 75% of all new renewable additions. Wind followed with 159 gigawatts.
• Africa recorded its highest renewable capacity expansion on record in 2025, growing 15.9% and adding 11.3 gigawatts led by Ethiopia, South Africa, and Egypt, while the Middle East saw its fastest-ever annual growth at 28.9%, driven by Saudi Arabia.

Renewables also made up 85.6% of all new power capacity added globally in 2025 — meaning for every new power plant or installation connected to a grid anywhere in the world, more than six out of seven ran on clean energy. The other 14.4% was fossil fuel or nuclear.

Why 49% matters more than it sounds

Installed capacity and actual electricity generation are different things. Fossil fuel plants typically run at higher utilization rates than solar or wind, which generate only when the sun shines or the wind blows. So while renewables now make up 49% of global installed power capacity, they supply roughly 32% of actual electricity generated. That gap is real and important.

But the capacity figure still matters enormously. Capacity is what gets built. It is where investment flows. It determines what the energy system will look like in ten and twenty years as the existing fossil fuel fleet ages out. When renewables make up nearly half of installed capacity and 85.6% of new additions, the direction of the global energy system is no longer in question — only the pace.

The jump from 46.3% to 49.4% in a single year shows how fast that direction is moving. At that rate, renewables cross 50% of installed capacity during 2026.

What pushed the numbers this high

Solar photovoltaic panels drove the surge. The 511 gigawatts of solar capacity added in 2025 alone exceeds the total solar capacity that existed globally in 2017. The cost of solar has fallen more than 90% over the past fifteen years, making it the cheapest source of new electricity generation in history — cheaper than coal, gas, or nuclear in almost every market. Wind added 159 gigawatts. Together, solar and wind accounted for 96.8% of all new renewable additions.

A geopolitical crisis accelerated the shift. Escalating conflict in the Middle East sent fossil fuel prices climbing and exposed the vulnerabilities of countries dependent on imported oil and gas. IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera said the contrast was visible in real economic data: “Countries that invested in the energy transition are weathering this crisis with less economic damage, as they boost energy security, resilience and competitiveness.” Renewable energy is homegrown. It has no fuel cost, no shipping route, no exposure to a tanker blockade or a pipeline disruption.

How the transition is reaching places it previously bypassed

The 2025 expansion was not evenly distributed, but it was broader than in previous years. Asia dominated in absolute terms, contributing 74.2% of new capacity — primarily China and, to a lesser extent, India. But Africa’s record 15.9% growth and the Middle East’s 28.9% expansion signal that the clean energy transition is beginning to reach beyond the handful of economies that have historically driven it.

Off-grid solar — the small installations that bring electricity directly to homes and businesses in areas without grid access — grew by 1.7 gigawatts globally. For communities in rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, off-grid solar is often not a secondary option. It is the first reliable electricity a household has ever had. Solar panel imports into Africa rose 60% in the year to mid-2025, with 20 countries recording record orders. That number tells a different story than the gigawatt totals dominated by China.

The honest gap between progress and the finish line

The 49.4% milestone is real. So is the distance still to travel. IRENA notes that 2025 also saw a sharp rebound in non-renewable capacity additions, which nearly doubled compared to 2024 — driven largely by China adding 100 gigawatts of non-renewable capacity, most of it coal, partly to meet demand from AI data centers. The share of new capacity going to renewables actually fell slightly from 92% in 2024 to 85.6% in 2025 for this reason.

The COP28 commitment to triple installed renewable capacity to 11.2 terawatts by 2030 remains out of reach at current rates. The world sits at 5.15 terawatts. Hitting the target requires 16.6% annual growth, sustained every year through 2030. 2025’s 15.5% fell just short of that pace. Grid infrastructure, financing access in developing nations, and policy consistency are the binding constraints — not technology cost or availability, both of which have already been solved.

Still, the world’s power system crossed a threshold in 2025 that was barely imaginable a decade ago. Renewable energy is now the dominant form of installed power capacity on Earth. The question for the rest of the decade is not whether the transition happens — but how fast, and who gets to be part of it.

This story was originally reported by the International Renewable Energy Agency.