Renewable power made up almost 50% of the world’s electricity capacity last year after a record increase in solar installations, data from the International Renewable Energy Agency shared exclusively with Reuters showed on Tuesday.
As the Middle Eastern conflict has led to record monthly gains on oil markets, some in industry have lobbied for more investment in fossil fuels, but countries with higher renewable capacity have been insulated from the market shock, some analysts say.
“The Middle East crisis has, in some ways confirmed dramatically energy security is not something we can be sure of with fossil fuels,” IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera told Reuters.
Global renewable power capacity reached a record 5,149 gigawatts at the end of 2025, up 692 GW from 2024, the data showed.
SOLAR SURGE IS BIGGEST CONTRIBUTOR
The growth was led by a leap in solar capacity. which grew by 511 GW in 2025 to 2,392 GW, confirming its position as the world’s largest renewable source.
The figures are far greater than the 116 GW growth in fossil fuel power capacity and took the share of renewables in global electricity capacity to 49.4% in 2025, up from 46.3% the year before, the data showed.
More than 100 countries at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023 agreed to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 as part of efforts to meet global climate targets and La Camera said last year’s additions mean the sector is closer to reaching the target.
“This 700 gigawatts means that we may be quite close in 2030 to the tripling target, not exactly the triple, but very close to it,” he said.
The data shows the annual growth rate in renewable capacity in 2025 rose to 15.5% compared with a growth rate of around 15.1% in 2024.
Renewable groups last year said meeting the target by 2030 would require annual growth of 16.6% from 2025-2030.
New wind energy installations were 159 GW, taking the total installed capacity to 1,291 GW.
Capacity is a measure of the amount of power plants are able to produce but they often generate less than capacity if they are taken offline for reasons such as maintenance or refuelling, or in the case of renewables during low wind and sun periods.
Data from think tank Ember last year showed renewable energy sources generated more electricity than coal globally for the first time in the first half of 2025. In all, renewables provided 34% of global electricity.
It has yet to publish its full-year data for 2025.
(Reporting by Susanna Twidale)
