By the end of 2017, global renewable generation capacity increased by 167GW and reached 2,179GW worldwide. This represents a yearly growth of around 8.3% according to the date presented in the report Renewable Capacity Statistics 2018 released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Solar photovoltaics (PV) grew by 32% in 2017, followed by wind energy, which grew by 10%. Underlying this growth are substantial cost reductions, with the levelised cost of electricity from solar PV decreasing by 73%, and onshore wind by nearly one-quarter, between 2010 and 2017. China continued to lead global capacity additions, installing nearly half of all new capacity in 2017. 10% of all new capacity additions came from India, mostly in solar and wind. Asia accounted for 64% of new capacity additions in 2017, up from 58% last year. Europe added 24GW of new capacity in 2017, followed by North America with 16GW. Brazil set itself on a path of accelerated renewables deployment, installing 1GW of solar generation, a ten-fold increase from the previous year.
Off-grid renewables capacity saw unprecedented growth in 2017, with an estimated 6.6GW serving off-grid customers. This represents a 10% growth from last year, with around 146 million people now using off-grid renewables.
