Contents
- Global renewable power capacity statistics: end-2025 scale and technology mix
- Global renewable power capacity statistics: annual additions and growth
- Global renewable power capacity statistics: regional capacity and change
- Global renewable power capacity statistics: solar and wind deployment
- global renewable power capacity: Renewable hydropower, bioenergy and geothermal capacity statistics
- global renewable power capacity: Off-grid renewable power capacity and installed capacity shares
- Sources
Global renewable power capacity statistics: end-2025 scale and technology mix
Global renewable power capacity totaled 5,149 GW at the end of 2025. This is a cumulative capacity measure: it describes the generating capacity in place at the year’s end, rather than the amount of electricity generated during the year. IRENA defines renewable power capacity as the maximum net generating capacity of installations that use renewable sources to produce electricity. For most countries and technologies, the data reflect installations that were in place and connected at calendar-year end. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, pp. 1–2
Solar was the largest technology in the global total, at 2,392 GW. Wind stood at 1,291 GW, and renewable hydropower at 1,296 GW. Those figures put wind and renewable hydropower at nearly the same scale, while solar capacity was higher than either. The hydropower figure excludes pure pumped storage under IRENA’s reporting convention. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 1 and footnote 2
| Technology | Global capacity at end-2025 |
|---|---|
| Solar | 2,392 GW |
| Wind | 1,291 GW |
| Renewable hydropower, excluding pure pumped storage | 1,296 GW |
| Bioenergy | 154 GW |
| Geothermal | 16 GW |
| Marine energy | 0.5 GW |
Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 1
Bioenergy capacity was 154 GW, while geothermal reached 16 GW and marine energy 0.5 GW. These smaller totals are part of the same end-of-year capacity picture, but the figures measure installed power capacity, not annual output or each technology’s contribution to electricity supply. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 1
Global renewable power capacity statistics: annual additions and growth
Global renewable power capacity increased by 692 GW in 2025, equivalent to reported growth of 15.5%. The annual increase and the year-end stock answer different questions: 692 GW is the net capacity added over the calendar year, while 5,149 GW is the cumulative total at the end of it. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 2
Solar added 511 GW, with reported growth of 27.2%. Wind additions were 159 GW, up 14.0%. Renewable hydropower capacity increased by 18.4 GW, or 1.4%; bioenergy increased by 3.4 GW, or 2.3%; and geothermal increased by 0.3 GW, or 1.7%. The differences across these growth rates show how uneven the reported expansion was across technologies during 2025. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 2
| Technology or measure | 2025 capacity increase | Reported growth or share |
|---|---|---|
| All renewables | 692 GW | 15.5% growth |
| Solar | 511 GW | 27.2% growth |
| Wind | 159 GW | 14.0% growth |
| Renewable hydropower | 18.4 GW | 1.4% growth |
| Bioenergy | 3.4 GW | 2.3% growth |
| Geothermal | 0.3 GW | 1.7% growth |
| Solar and wind combined | — | 96.8% of net renewable additions |
Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 2
IRENA reports that solar and wind jointly accounted for 96.8% of all net renewable additions in 2025. This is a share of net additions, not a share of total installed capacity. It describes the composition of the year’s expansion and is consistent with the much larger reported additions for solar and wind than for the other listed technologies. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 2
Global renewable power capacity statistics: regional capacity and change
Asia had 2,891 GW of renewable capacity at end-2025, equal to 56.1% of the global total. It added 513.3 GW during 2025, and its reported regional growth rate was 21.6%. Asia also accounted for 74.2% of new global renewable capacity in the year. The capacity share is a measure of the year-end stock; the 74.2% figure describes Asia’s portion of additions during 2025. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, pp. 2–3
| Region | Renewable capacity at end-2025 | Share of global capacity | 2025 increase | 2025 growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asia | 2,891 GW | 56.1% | 513.3 GW | 21.6% |
| Europe | 934 GW | 18.1% | 76.8 GW | 9.0% |
| North America | 614 GW | 11.9% | 42.1 GW | 7.4% |
| Africa | 82 GW | 1.6% | 11.3 GW | 15.9% |
| Middle East | 56 GW | 1.1% | 12.7 GW | 28.9% |
Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 2
The remaining reported regional changes were 19.6 GW in South America, with growth of 6.3%; 6.1 GW in Oceania, with growth of 8.6%; and 1.8 GW in Central America and the Caribbean, with growth of 9.1%. Together with the regions in the table, these observations show that annual additions and percentage growth need to be read separately: a smaller capacity base can post a higher growth rate without having the largest absolute increase. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 2
Among the reported regional growth rates, the Middle East’s 28.9% was the highest, while its increase was 12.7 GW. Asia’s 513.3 GW increase was by far the largest listed in absolute terms. Africa added 11.3 GW and grew 15.9%. These are reported regional comparisons; they do not by themselves identify the causes of differences or indicate how much electricity the installed capacity produced. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 2
Global renewable power capacity statistics: solar and wind deployment
Country-level additions help describe where solar and wind capacity expanded in 2025. China added 315.1 GW of solar capacity, followed in the reported list by India at 37.0 GW and South Korea at 3.7 GW. The United States added 34.0 GW of solar capacity, which IRENA reports was 19.2% more than its 2024 additions. Germany added 15.1 GW, and Brazil added 11.6 GW. Each figure is a country’s capacity addition during 2025, not its cumulative installed solar capacity. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 4
For wind, China added 119.4 GW in 2025. India added 6.3 GW. IRENA describes China as leading the expansion and contributing nearly three-quarters of total capacity added. The supplied figure for India gives its addition, but does not provide a corresponding percentage of global wind additions. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 4
The global solar increase is reported as 511 GW, while the technology-specific figure for solar photovoltaic power is 510.3 GW of total capacity added in 2025. These are not contradictory precision levels: the former is the rounded broader solar increase, and the latter identifies solar photovoltaic additions. Keeping the reported scopes and precision intact avoids treating the two figures as identical measurements. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, pp. 2, 4
The country figures also illustrate the scale difference between China’s additions and those reported for other countries. In solar, China’s 315.1 GW was followed by the listed additions in India, the United States, Germany, Brazil and South Korea. In wind, the highlight provides China and India figures. The list is a set of reported country observations, not a complete ranking of all countries’ additions. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 4
global renewable power capacity: Renewable hydropower, bioenergy and geothermal capacity statistics
Renewable hydropower capacity stood at 1,296 GW at end-2025, excluding pure pumped storage. IRENA separately reports 160 GW of pure pumped-storage hydropower. Including that category, total hydropower capacity was 1,456 GW. The distinction matters when comparing hydropower totals: the renewable hydropower series excludes pure pumped storage, while the broader total includes it. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 1 and footnote 2
Hydropower capacity increased by 18.4 GW in 2025, and IRENA attributes 96.0% of that increase to China. This is a share of annual renewable hydropower capacity growth, not a share of total global hydropower capacity. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, pp. 2, 4
Bioenergy reached 154 GW globally at end-2025 and grew by 3.4 GW during the year. The reported country additions were 1.1 GW in Japan, 0.8 GW in China, 0.6 GW in Brazil, 0.2 GW in Chile and 0.1 GW in Belgium. These figures describe capacity changes over 2025; the global 154 GW figure is the cumulative year-end capacity. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, pp. 1–2, 4
Geothermal capacity totaled 16 GW at end-2025, with an increase of 0.3 GW during the year. The Philippines and Indonesia each contributed 0.1 GW of geothermal additions. The country values are reported additions, while 16 GW is the global installed capacity stock. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, pp. 1–2, 4
global renewable power capacity: Off-grid renewable power capacity and installed capacity shares
In IRENA’s stated off-grid coverage, renewable capacity expanded by 1.7 GW to 17.8 GW in 2025. The report excludes Eurasia, Europe and North America from these off-grid figures, so the coverage is narrower than the global total used elsewhere in this article. Solar accounted for 88.2% of the off-grid expansion, adding 1.5 GW and reaching 10.3 GW of off-grid solar capacity. Bioenergy contributed a further 0.2 GW of off-grid additions. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 4 and footnote 6
IRENA reports that renewables represented 49.4% of global installed power capacity at end-2025, up from 46.3% in 2024. Variable renewables represented 35.3% of total capacity in 2025. These are installed-capacity shares, not shares of electricity generated. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, pp. 1, 5
Renewables accounted for 85.6% of total power capacity expansion in 2025, compared with 92.0% in 2024. This annual expansion share has a different denominator from the 49.4% end-of-year installed-capacity share: one describes the renewable portion of new power capacity during a year, the other the renewable portion of all installed power capacity at year-end. Source: IRENA, Renewable capacity highlights 2025, p. 5
The reported 2025 figures are from IRENA’s 2026 highlights and may be revised in later editions. The report notes that the 2024 global renewable capacity total was revised to 4,457 GW in this publication, compared with 4,443 GW in the prior report; earlier publication vintages can therefore show different historical values. IRENA’s statistics tables present capacity in MW, while the highlights report rounds many totals to GW. These publication and unit conventions should be kept in mind when comparing editions.
Sources
- Renewable capacity highlights 2025, International Renewable Energy Agency
- Renewable capacity statistics 2026, International Renewable Energy Agency
- Technology: Solar PV and wind — Global Energy Review 2026, International Energy Agency
- World adds a record-breaking 814 GW of solar and wind in 2025, Ember