The world added 453 GW of solar energy in 2024, which accounted for 42% of global renewable capacity, says IRENA
Asia contributed 71% of all new renewable installations in 2024, far ahead of other regions
The current pace of installations will fall short of the 2030 global renewables target by 0.9 TW
Solar energy led global renewable capacity in 2024, accounting for 42% or 1,866 GW of the cumulative renewable energy installations, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) updated Renewable Energy Statistics 2025 report.
This is an updated version of an earlier report that IRENA released in March 2025, where it reported 585 GW of renewable energy installations in 2024, including solar’s 451.9 GW (see IRENA: A Record 452 GW Solar Capacity Installed In 2024).
IRENA says that the updated version includes some minor revisions to the 2024 and historical renewable energy generation capacities reported in March 2025.
As per the update, solar capacity additions totaled 453 GW in 2024 and wind energy 114 GW. Together, these 2 sources dominated the year’s expansion, representing 97.5% of all new renewable additions. Total new renewable capacity hit an all-time high of 582 GW with a 15.1% YoY growth compared to the 14.4% annual increase in 2023, as the share of renewables in overall capacity additions surged to 91.1%.
Non-renewable capacity additions, on the other hand, have remained relatively constant or even decreased over the years. Since 2019, these have stayed below 90 GW annually.
Asia accounted for 71% of the new renewable energy additions last year as it contributed 413.2 GW to the global total, followed by Europe’s 71.9 GW, and North America’s 45.5 GW. The Middle East rose by 4 GW, while Africa added 4.7 GW, according to the agency.
IRENA has lowered the aggregate renewable energy generation capacity in 2024 by 5.3 GW to 4,443 GW, citing downward revisions for hydropower and wind power plants, partly offset by upward revisions for solar and bioenergy power plants.
Yet, this growth still falls short of the pace that the world needs to achieve to triple the global installed renewable power capacity to more than 11 TW by 2030. Maintaining this growth rate would only lead to a combined 10.3 TW, falling 0.9 TW or 7.7% short of the target, it adds. At COP28, more than 120 nations agreed to a common renewable energy target of a minimum 11 TW by 2030 (see Over 120 Nations For 11 TW Global RE Target By 2030).
“In the five-year period from 2018 to 2023, global renewable energy capacity expanded at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.4%. If this historical trend were to continue, it would result in 8.0 TW of installed renewable capacity by 2030 — falling 3.1 TW (or 28%) short of the target,” reads the IRENA analysis.
It adds, “Achieving the target by 2030 would have required maintaining a minimum annual growth rate of 16.1% from 2022 onwards. However, since 2023 and 2024 both fell short of this rate, renewable capacity must now expand even faster (by 16.6% each year during the remaining six years of the decade).”
The updated version of the report is available on IRENA’s website for free download.
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