Renewable capacity highlights

11 April 2022

HEADLINE Renewable generation capacity by energy source

FIGURES
At the end of 2021, global renewable
5% generation capacity amounted to
3 064 GW 3 064 GW. Hydropower accounted for
the largest share of the global total,
27% with a capacity of 1 230 GW.*
Global renewable 40%
generation capacity at
the end of 2021 Solar and wind energy accounted for
equal shares of the remainder, with
capacities of 849 GW and 825 GW
28%
9.1% respectively. Other renewables
included 143 GW of bioenergy and
Growth in renewable 16 GW of geothermal, plus 524 MW of
capacity during 2021 Hydro Solar Wind Others marine energy.

Renewable power capacity growth

257 GW
GW
Net increase in global 3,000 150
renewable generation
capacity in 2021
2,500 125

60% 2,000 100

Share of new
1,500 75
renewable capacity
installed in Asia in 2021 1,000 50

500 25
88%
0 0
Wind and solar share of 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Capacity added in 2021
new renewable
capacity in 2021 Hydropower Solar Wind Bioenergy Geothermal

Renewable generation capacity increased by 257 GW (+9.1%) in 2021. Solar

81% energy continued to lead capacity expansion, with an increase of 133 GW (+19%),
followed by wind energy with 93 GW (+13%). Hydropower capacity increased by
19 GW (+2%) and bioenergy by 10 GW (+8%). Geothermal energy increased by
Share of renewables in
net capacity 1.6 GW.
expansion in 2021 Solar and wind energy continued to dominate renewable capacity expansion,
jointly accounting for 88% of all net renewable additions in 2021. Along with the
higher growth of geothermal, this growth in wind and solar led to a high annual
increase in renewable generating capacity.
IRENA’s renewable energy ______________________________________________________________________________
statistics can be downloaded * Note: these figures exclude pure pumped storage. At end-2021, this was an additional 130 GW,
at: www.irena.org/statistics giving a total hydropower capacity of 1 360 GW.
Renewable generation capacity by region

North America Europe Eurasia

Capacity 458 GW Capacity 647 GW Capacity 116 GW
Global share 15% Global share 21% Global share 4%
Change +37.9 GW Change +39.1 GW Change +5.6 GW
Growth +9.0% Growth +6.4% Growth +5.1%

Central America
Middle East Asia
and the Caribbean
Capacity 17 GW Capacity 24 GW Capacity 1 456 GW
Global share <1% Global share <1% Global share 48%
Change +0.6 GW Change +1.0 GW Change +154.7 GW
Growth +3.3% Growth +4.5% Growth +11.9%

South America Africa Oceania

Capacity 245 GW Capacity 56 GW Capacity 45 GW
Global share 8% Global share 2% Global share 1%
Change +13.5 GW Change +2.1 GW Change +2.2 GW
Growth +5.9% Growth +3.9% Growth +5.2%

For the complete dataset see: IRENA (2022), Renewable capacity statistics 2022, available at: www.irena.org/publications.

Asia accounted for 60% of new capacity in 2021, increasing its renewable capacity by 154.7 GW to reach 1.46 TW
(48% of the global total). A huge part of this increase occurred in China (+121 GW). Capacity in Europe and North
America expanded by 39 GW (+6.4%) and 38 GW (+9.0%) respectively, with a notably large expansion in the
USA (+32 GW). Africa continued to expand steadily with an increase of 2.1 GW (+3.9%), slightly less than in 2020.
Oceania is no longer the fastest growing region (+5.2%), although its share of global capacity is small and almost
all of this expansion occurred in Australia.

Highlights by technology
Hydropower: Growth in hydro increased 1 GW in 2021. While offshore wind remains a fairly small
steadily in 2021, with the commissioning of part of the sector, it continues to increase in
several large projects delayed through 2021. importance each year and reached around 7% of total
China added 14.6 GW of capacity, followed by Canada wind capacity in 2021.
with 1.3 GW.
Bioenergy: Net capacity expansion
Solar energy: With an increase in new increased in 2021 (+10.3 GW compared to
capacity in all major world regions in +9.1 GW in 2020). Bioenergy capacity in
previous years, total global solar capacity China expanded by 6.2 GW, leading net expansion in
has now outgrown wind energy capacity. Asia and the world. North America was the only other
region with significant expansion in 2021, adding
Expansion in Asia was 76 GW in 2021 (compared to 1.3 GW of bioenergy capacity.
+77 GW in 2020), with major capacity increases in
China (+53.0 GW) and India (+10.3 GW). Japan also Geothermal energy: Geothermal capacity
added 4.4 GW and Republic of Korea expanded solar had an exceptional growth in 2021, with 1.6
capacity by almost 3.6 GW. GW added. The United States increased
capacity by 1.3 GW in 2021, and other expansions
Outside Asia, the United States added 19.6 GW of solar occurred in Indonesia (+146 MW), Turkey (+63 MW),
capacity in 2021, Brazil and Germany respectively Italy (+30 MW) and Mexico (+25 MW).
added 5.2 GW and 4.7 GW and the Netherlands and
Spain added more than 3 GW. Off-grid electricity: Off-grid capacity grew
by 466 MW in 2021 (+4%) to reach 11.2 GW.*
Wind energy: Wind expansion continued at Solar expanded by 312 MW to reach 4.9 GW
a lower rate in 2021 compared to 2020 and hydro added 113 MW to reach 1.9 GW. Bioenergy
(+93 GW compared to +110 GW last year). and other capacity remained almost unchanged at
China added 46.9 GW of new wind capacity, followed about 4.5 GW.
by the United States (+14.0 GW). Eleven other
countries increased their wind capacity by more than * Note: these figures exclude Eurasia, Europe and North America.
Renewable share of annual power capacity expansion

GW
90% 270
Share of new electricity generating capacity

80% 240

70% 210

60% 180

50% 150

40% 120

30% 90

20% 60

10% 30

0% 0
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021
Increase in non-renewables (GW) Increase in renewables (GW) Renewable share (%)

In 2021, renewable generating capacity expansion capacity. At the global level, the latter is also affected
slowed down slightly compared to 2020, while staying by the large amount of net decommissioning that has
well above the long-term trend. Most of this expansion occurred for many years in some regions.
occurred in China and, to a lesser extent, the United
States. Most other countries continued to increase In 2021, non-renewable capacity continued to expand
renewable capacity at a similar rate to previous years. in Asia, the Middle East and Africa (but with a much
lower expansion in Middle East and Africa), while net
The share of renewables in total capacity expansion decommissioning continued in Europe and Eurasia.
reached 81% in 2021, compared to the figure of 79% in
2020. The renewable share of total generation An energy transition requires that the use of
capacity rose by almost two percentage points from renewables expands by more than the growth in
36.6% in 2020 to 38.3% in 2021. energy demand, so that less non-renewable energy
needs to be used. Many countries still have not reached
The upward trend in these shares reflects not only the this point, despite dramatic increases in their use of
rapid and increasing growth of the use of renewables renewables for generating electricity.
but also the declining expansion of non-renewable

Latest figures compared to previous estimates

Compared to the capacity statistics published in year for a few countries where data were not available
August 2021, the figures here have been revised and estimates were made last year.
upwards very slightly. Total renewable capacity in
2020 was reported as 2 802 GW last year and the new The other main revision has been an increase in the
figure for 2020 is 2 807 GW (+0.18%). time-series for off-grid generation, where new figures
have been found. Given the importance of increasing
As noted last year, most revisions can be explained by energy access and the widespread use of solar power
imprecise early reporting of distributed solar power for this purpose, countries are encouraged to continue
generation in a few countries (which is often expanding the collection of off-grid data for
overstated). Upward revisions were also made this monitoring their national energy goals and targets.