Photo depicts a solar panels and windmills in the power plant

Why are renewables important?

Renewables, including solar, wind, hydropower, biofuels and others, are at the centre of the transition to less carbon-intensive and more sustainable energy systems. Generation capacity has grown rapidly in recent years, driven by policy support and sharp cost reductions for solar photovoltaics and wind power in particular.

What is the role of renewables in clean energy transitions?

The deployment of renewables in the power, heat and transport sectors is one of the main enablers of keeping the rise in average global temperatures below 1.5°C. In the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario, renewables allow electricity generation to be almost completely decarbonised. Meanwhile, renewable transport fuels and renewable heat contribute to significant emissions reductions in transport, buildings and industry.

What are the challenges?

The electricity sector remains the brightest spot for renewables with the strong growth of solar photovoltaics and wind in recent years, building on the already significant contribution of hydropower. But electricity accounts for only a fifth of global energy consumption and finding a greater role for renewable energy sources in transportation and heating remains critical to the energy transition.

Renewables, including solar, wind, hydropower, biofuels and others, are at the centre of the transition to less carbon-intensive and more sustainable energy systems. Generation capacity has grown rapidly in recent years, driven by policy support and sharp cost reductions for solar photovoltaics and wind power in particular.

The deployment of renewables in the power, heat and transport sectors is one of the main enablers of keeping the rise in average global temperatures below 1.5°C. In the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario, renewables allow electricity generation to be almost completely decarbonised. Meanwhile, renewable transport fuels and renewable heat contribute to significant emissions reductions in transport, buildings and industry.

The electricity sector remains the brightest spot for renewables with the strong growth of solar photovoltaics and wind in recent years, building on the already significant contribution of hydropower. But electricity accounts for only a fifth of global energy consumption and finding a greater role for renewable energy sources in transportation and heating remains critical to the energy transition.

Latest findings

Share of renewable electricity generation by technology, 2000-2028

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Tracking Renewables

More efforts needed

Renewables play a critical role in clean energy transitions. The deployment of renewables for electricity generation, for heat production for buildings and industry, and in transport is one of the main enablers of keeping average global temperature rise below 1.5°C. Modern bioenergy is today the largest source of renewable energy globally, with a more than 50% share of global use in 2022. Bioenergy is discussed separately, and this page is dedicated to other renewable technologies.  

Recent progress has been promising, and 2022 was a record year for renewable electricity capacity additions, with annual capacity additions amounting to about 340 GW. Key policies announced in 2022, especially REPowerEU in the European Union, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the United States and China’s 14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy, will lend further support to accelerate renewable electricity deployment in the coming years. 

Solar PV is today the only renewable energy technology on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) Scenario. Wind, hydro, geothermal, solar thermal and ocean energy use needs to expand significantly faster in order to get on track. Non-bioenergy renewables need to increase their share of total energy supply from close to 5% today to approximately 17% by 2030 in the NZE Scenario. To achieve this, annual renewable energy use must increase at an average rate of about 13% during 2023-2030, twice as much as the average over the past 5 years. 

New policies introduced in 2022 in the biggest global economies are expected to boost renewable energy use

Countries and regions making notable progress in advancing renewables include: 

  • China continues to lead in terms of renewable electricity capacity additions, with 160 GW added in 2022, almost half of all global deployment. The 14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy, released in 2022, provides ambitious targets for renewable energy use, which should spur investment in the coming years. 
  • The European Union is accelerating solar PV and wind deployment in response to the energy crisis, with more than 50 GW added in 2022, an almost 45% increase compared to 2021. New policies and targets proposed in the REPowerEU Plan and The Green Deal Industrial Plan are expected to be important drivers of renewable energy investments in the coming years. 
  • The United States announced important new funding in 2022 under the IRA, which is expected to advance deployment of renewables in the medium term, and to boost investment in both power plants and equipment manufacturing. 
  • India remains committed to its ambitious target of reaching 500 GW of non-fossil power capacity in 2030. In April 2023, it announced a plan to auction 50 GW of new capacity annually to fulfil this goal.  

Renewables expansion is the major contributor to CO2 emission reductions up to 2030 in the NZE Scenario

Renewables, in particular wind and solar technologies, are responsible for one of the largest shares of global CO2 emission reductions between now and 2030 in the NZE Scenario. They offer an alternative to investment in new fossil fuel power generation plants and displace generation from existing units.  

In the NZE Scenario, renewable power in the form of direct electricity use or indirect use, e.g. in the form of renewable hydrogen, is expected to displace the majority of fossil fuels use in end-use sectors, especially industry and transport. Renewable heat sources like modern bioenergy, geothermal plants and solar heaters will also play a major role in decarbonisation of the heating sector.  

The increase in renewables as a share of energy supply in 2022 was the second largest in history, but even faster increases are needed to align with the NZE Scenario

Renewables share of total energy supply in the Net Zero Scenario, 2010-2030

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In 2022, renewable energy supply from solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and ocean rose by close to 8%, meaning that the share of these technologies in total global energy supply increased by close to 0.4 percentage points, reaching 5.5%. Modern bioenergy's share in 2022 increased by 0.2 percentage points, reaching 6.8%. Record renewable electricity capacity additions in 2022, and an increase in hydropower availability, allowed non-bioenergy renewables to achieve their second highest share growth in history. This result is second only to growth in 2020, an unusual year, when the Covid-19 pandemic led to a global economic crisis and resulting decrease in total energy consumption, while use of renewables remained robust. 

The supply of renewables needs to accelerate to reach around 13% expansion annually over 2023-2030 to align with the NZE Scenario. Despite record renewable electricity capacity additions in 2022, supply growth was still significantly below that level. Much faster deployment of all renewable technologies in all regions of the world will be needed to put the world on track with the NZE Scenario. 

Accelerating wind and solar PV capacity additions are driving the growth in renewable energy supply, but activity needs to ramp up rapidly to align with the NZE Scenario

Electricity generation from renewables accounts for about 40% of the total renewable energy supply. For non-bioenergy renewable sources, this share is as high as 80% with the remainder in the form of heat produced in solar thermal and geothermal installations. Wind and solar PV evenly accounted for about 85% of 2022’s record growth in renewable electricity generation of over 600 TWh. The rest of the growth came from hydropower generation, which increased by about 2%. Electricity and heat generation growth in geothermal, concentrated solar power (CSP) and ocean technologies mostly stalled in 2022 due to limited capacity additions. In total, in 2022 non-bioenergy renewable sources accounted for almost 30% of electricity generation. 

Solar PV has been the fastest growing technology by capacity additions in recent years and is aligned with the NZE Scenario. In the case of wind, hydropower and bioenergy, more efforts are needed to get on track, as growth in recent years and that expected in the near future is significantly below required levels. Other less widely used renewable technologies, such as CSP, geothermal and ocean power, are not on track and require a rapid step-up in support.  

Positive policy developments in China, the European Union, the United States and India will drive faster renewables growth in the coming years

Renewable electricity is subject to policy support and national targets in the majority of countries around the world. Various types of support have been implemented, including technology-specific measures. The following important changes have been implemented in the past couple of years: 

  • China published its 14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy in June 2022, which includes an ambitious target of 33% of electricity generation to come from renewables by 2025 (up from about 29% in 2021) and, for the first time, a target for renewable heat use. 
  • In August 2022 the federal government of the United States introduced the IRA, which significantly expands support for renewable energy in the next ten years through tax credits and other measures. 
  • In May 2022 the European Commission proposed to increase the European Union’s renewable energy target for 2030 to 45% as part of the REPowerEU Plan (which would require 1 236 GW of total installed renewable capacity). Many European countries have already expanded their renewables support mechanisms in order to accelerate renewable power and heat use with a view to the 2030 targets and in response to the energy crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition, in February 2023 the Commission announced The Green Deal Industrial Plan, aiming to support the expansion of clean energy technology manufacturing. 
  • During COP26, held in November 2021 in Glasgow, India announced new targets for 2030, comprising 500 GW of total non-fossil electricity generating capacity and a 50% renewable electricity generation share (more than double the 22% share in 2020), as well as net zero emissions by 2070. 

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