Renewable energies: record growth and challenges for the future!

Renewable energies: record growth and challenges for the future!

Asien, Welt - The world experiences unprecedented growth in the area of renewable energies. According to the latest report by Irena, published on March 26, 2025, the global generation of electricity from renewable energies is now 4,448 gigawatts (GW). This represents an increase of 585 GW in 2024, which corresponds to 92.5 % of the total capacity expansion. The annual growth rate is therefore 15.1 %.

In order to achieve the ambitious goal of tripling the installed performance by 2030, an annual increase of 16.6 % is required. However, the geographical distribution of growth indicates considerable imbalances. While Asia, especially China, leads to 64 % of the global capacity increase, Central America and the Caribbean only contribute 3.2 %. This represents a challenge for the even distribution and the achievement of global climate goals.

dominance of solar and wind energy

The numbers also illustrate the dominance of solar and wind energy, which together make up 96.6 % of the global net supplement. The photovoltaic increase alone reached 451.9 GW, with China made the biggest contribution with 278 GW. Other renewable energy sources such as hydropower, bioenergy and geothermal energy could also record significant growth.

Francesco La Camera, the general director of Irena, emphasizes the economic profitability of these technologies, but at the same time emphasizes the challenges that result from regional inequalities. UN General Secretary António Guterres described this progress as milestone for the global economy and as a significant step towards reducing the dependency on fossil fuels.

challenges and outlook

Despite the positive developments, the focus remains on the fair distribution of growth. While a capacity increase of 473 GW has already been recorded in 2023, there is a risk that this progress does not reach all regions equally. For example, the increase in Africa was only 4.6 %, which further enlarges the gap between developed and developing countries.

Development of new technologies and market trends

Market research shows that the energy market will continue to attract due to population growth and economic development. The mixture of the energy sources will increasingly shift towards clean and sustainable options. Fossil fuels lose importance, but remain of great relevance in many countries for the coming decades.

The continuous improvement in energy storage and network integration is particularly important, which further promote the growth of renewable energies. The outlook for the sector remains positive due to falling costs and increasing demand. The increasing investments in carbon separation and storage technologies show that interest in innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is also growing.

Finally, Irena's report shows that during the progress in the production of renewable energies, just and sustainable development is essential for all countries to use the full advantages of these clean technologies. Further details can be viewed in the report "Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025".

For updated information and statistics on renewable energies worldwide, see also Statista and ÖKONEWS .

The data from the Irena press release can be found at .