Data
World renewable power capacity
Total capacity of the world's renewable power plants (hydropower, wind, solar, bioenergy, geothermal and marine) at the end of each year since 2016, as compiled by IRENA.
Latest value
5,149GW
World, 2025. Version 2026-03-31.
World renewable power capacity (gigawatts)
Show as a table
| Period | Value (GW) | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2,021 | final |
| 2017 | 2,187 | final |
| 2018 | 2,358 | final |
| 2019 | 2,541 | final |
| 2020 | 2,811 | final |
| 2021 | 3,077 | final |
| 2022 | 3,379 | final |
| 2023 | 3,873 | final |
| 2024 | 4,457 | final |
| 2025 | 5,149 | final |
Where it comes from
- Producer
- International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) · Renewable capacity statistics 2026
- Version
- 2026-03-31
- Fetched
- 2026-10-05 (automatically), 1,681,315 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 fc580bd4f4ee39ef20de6b1ce3926005a4e3e3b8e2c92fd6a16d175a52515921
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- IRENA (2026), Renewable capacity statistics 2026, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi.
- Producer
- International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) · Renewable capacity statistics 2026
- Version
- 2026-03-31
- Fetched
- 2026-10-05 (automatically), 1,973,926 bytes
- Fingerprint
- sha256 c71bd27d8e33f57d817523def77c1189af0132d74fd7a1e594e56ef3b6a0cb8b
- Copies
- No Wayback copy recorded yet.Our copy of the exact file
- Cite the producer
- IRENA (2026), Renewable capacity statistics 2026, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi.
What was done to it
Read IRENA's Renewable capacity statistics 2026 (PDF created 31 March 2026, sha256 fc580bd4f4ee…; its metadata title and the citation on page 2 name this edition) and took the World row of each table from the text of pages 14, 18, 21, 25, 26, 29, 32, 33, 37, 41, 42, 53, 64, read with the columns kept apart, for 2016 to 2025.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/irena_capacity.py · code sha256 16bd17df3d2b10a7… · inputs fc580bd4f4ee… c71bd27d8e33…
Checked that Total renewable energy is the sum of renewable hydropower, marine, onshore and offshore wind, solar photovoltaic, concentrated solar power, bioenergy and geothermal in every year, and that the wind, solar and hydropower tables add up from their parts, each to within the rounding of the megawatt values. Pure pumped storage is not part of IRENA's renewable total.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/irena_capacity.py · code sha256 16bd17df3d2b10a7… · inputs fc580bd4f4ee… c71bd27d8e33…
Found the quotes used as publisher checks in the highlights PDF (pages 1, 5).
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/irena_capacity.py · code sha256 16bd17df3d2b10a7… · inputs fc580bd4f4ee… c71bd27d8e33…
Published Total renewable energy in gigawatts.
Code: pipeline/src/envdash/transforms/energy/irena_capacity.py · code sha256 16bd17df3d2b10a7… · inputs fc580bd4f4ee… c71bd27d8e33…
What it covers
- Geography
- World
- Basis
- Maximum net generating capacity of renewable power plants installed and connected at the end of each year, as compiled by IRENA from official and unofficial sources and its own estimates. Capacity is not generation. Pure pumped storage hydropower and stationary batteries are not included. Values are revised in later editions.
- Unit
- gigawatts (GW)