The milestone crept up on the world in single-digit percentages, one record year after another, and this week the International Renewable Energy Agency put a number on where it landed: renewable energy now accounts for very nearly half of all the electricity-generating capacity on the planet [1].
IRENA's Renewable Energy Statistics 2026, released July 14, reports that renewables reached about 5,149 gigawatts of installed capacity - 49.5 percent of the global total - and generated 31.7 percent of the world's electricity in 2024, up nearly 10 percent in a single year [1][2]. In 2025 alone the world added a record 692 gigawatts of renewable capacity, a 15.5 percent jump, and roughly three-quarters of it was solar [1].
Data
| Solar | 510 GW added in 2025 |
|---|---|
| All other renewables | 182 GW added in 2025 |
Solar is the engine. New solar accounted for 510 of those 692 gigawatts, and solar generation reached 2,105.8 terawatt-hours in 2024, up nearly 30 percent from the year before [1]. Asia drove most of the buildout - about three-quarters of 2025's new capacity - led by China, which added more than 440 gigawatts on its own [1].
None of this settles the climate question, and IRENA's own reporting is careful about the distance still to travel. What the 2026 numbers mark is a threshold quietly crossed: the machinery that powers the world is now, by capacity, about half renewable - built fastest in the places adding the most electricity, and cheaper each year it grows [1].
