In 2024, renewables reached a new milestone, with 585GW of capacity added worldwide. That represents  92.5% of all annual electricity expansion. Total capacity now stands at 4,448GW, says the 2025 edition of Renewable Capacity Statistics published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). That’s a record growth of 15.1%, but still below the 16.6% needed each year to triple this capacity by 2030, as agreed at Cop28.

Europe remains a major pillar of this dynamic, with EU countries accounting for 703GW of installed renewable energy capacity at the end of 2024. This represents an annual increase of more than 11% for the European Union. Luxembourg, for its part, reached 861MW, up 18% on the previous year.

But geographical disparities remain marked: China alone accounts for almost 64% of capacity additions, whilst the EU, the US and China together concentrate 83.6% of new installations. Africa, by comparison, accounted for just 0.7% of new capacity.

“Every year, renewable [energies] break their own records,” notes Irena director general Francesco La Camera. “But regional gaps persist and the clock is ticking as we approach 2030.”

Solar power remains the main driver of growth, with a global increase of 32.2% in 2024, or more than 450GW added--including almost 100GW in the European Union alone. Wind power follows, with an increase of 11.1%, driven in particular by Spain (+7.6GW), Germany (+6.4GW) and France (+2.6GW). Hydropower, which is already well exploited in Europe, is showing more marked growth in other regions, such as Asia and Africa. The report also highlights a net dismantling of fossil-fired capacity in certain regions, which mechanically strengthens the weight of renewable energies in the global mix.

This article was originally published in .