Renewable Capacity Statistics 2023, released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shows that renewable energy continues to grow at record levels despite global uncertainties, confirming the downward trend of fossil fueled power generation.
By the end of 2022, global renewable generation capacity amounted to 3372GW, growing the stock of renewable power by a record of 295GW or by 9.6 per cent. 83 per cent of all power capacity added last year was produced by renewables.
While many countries increased their renewable capacity in 2022, the significant growth of renewables is persistently concentrated in a few countries and regions like Asia, the USA and Europe. IRENA’s data finds that almost half of all new capacity in 2022 was added in Asia, resulting in a total of 1.63TW of renewable capacity by 2022. China was the biggest contributor, adding 141GW to the continent’s new capacity.
Renewables in Europe and North America grew by 57.3GW and 29.1GW respectively. Africa continued to expand steadily with an increase of 2.7GW, slightly above last year. Oceania continued its double-digit growth with an expansion of 5.2GW and South America continued an upward trend, with a capacity expansion of 18.2GW. The Middle East recorded its highest increase in renewables on record, with 3.2GW of new capacity commissioned in 2022, an increase of 12.8 per cent.
Although hydropower accounted for the largest share of the global total renewable generation capacity with 1250GW, solar and wind continued to dominate new generating capacity. Together, both technologies contributed 90 per cent to the share of all new renewable capacity in 2022. Solar capacity led with 22 per cent increase, followed by wind energy, which increased its generating capacity by 9 per cent. With an increase of 75 GW (+9 per cent) in 2022, growth in wind power continued to slow compared to the previous two years.
