Renewable Capacity Hit a Record in 2025 — But Trackers Disagree by Over 100 GW on How Big
Global renewable power capacity additions set a new record in 2025 by every major tracker's count, but the size of that record depends on who is counting. IRENA's year-end survey of national-authority data puts new capacity at 692 GW; the IEA's market-based analysis puts it near 800 GW, a roughly 108 GW gap driven almost entirely by differing solar tallies. Ember's independent forecast, at 793 GW, lands close to the IEA figure rather than IRENA's.
claim: Global renewable power capacity additions hit a new annual record in 2025, though major trackers' tallies for the total diverge by more than 100 gigawatts
Sources · prominence score
Evidence Quality
Tier Mix
Pipeline Warnings
- Unknown source host — defaulted to T? (lowest credibility)CredibilityScorer · pv-magazine.com
- Unknown source host — defaulted to T? (lowest credibility)CredibilityScorer · theregister.com
- insufficient_candidatesAlgox:topK · 5/6
- ephemeral_signing_keyResearchProtocolAdapter · UVRN_EXPANSE_PRODUCER_PRIVATE_KEY not set — signed with a one-time ephemeral key
Findings
- IRENA's Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026 recorded 692 GW of new renewable power capacity in 2025 (511 GW solar, 159 GW wind, ~22 GW other), lifting global installed capacity to 5,149 GW -- a 15.5% annual increase.
- The IEA's Renewables 2025 report put 2025 additions at roughly 800 GW (605 GW solar PV, 159 GW wind), calling it the 23rd consecutive year of record renewable expansion -- a 16% year-on-year rise.
- Ember's November 2025 forecast projected 793 GW of 2025 additions, up from 717 GW in 2024, tracking far closer to the IEA's estimate than IRENA's.
- Wind capacity additions are the one figure IRENA and IEA agree on almost exactly (159 GW in both tallies); the gap in the totals traces almost entirely to differing solar counts (511 GW vs. 605 GW) and methodology -- IRENA's year-end installed-capacity survey of national authorities versus the IEA's own market modeling.
Anyone citing a single global renewable capacity figure -- journalists, ESG analysts, energy-policy teams -- should note which tracker they are quoting; UVRN surfaces the spread across primary sources instead of picking a winner.
- Run ID
- run-134
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