But despite setting a new high in annual capacity expansion, the growth still fails to reach the levels needed to deliver on the global goal to triple available renewable energy by 2030, IRENA cautions. This would require growing capacity at 16.6% each year until 2030.
“The continuous growth of renewables we witness each year is evidence that renewables are economically viable and readily deployable,” said IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera. “Each year they keep breaking their own expansion records, but we also face the same challenges of great regional disparities and the ticking clock as the 2030 deadline is imminent.”
Europe expanded its capacity by 70.1 GW (9%), in large part due to significant growth in Germany.
The G7 and G20 countries led 14.3% and 90.3% of new capacity growth in 2024. This means that by the end of the year, the G7 (excluding the European Union) comprised just under a quarter of the global capacity share and the G20 (excluding the EU and African Union) accounted for four-fifths.
