Three-quarters of global renewables capacity additions in 2024 came from solar energy.

Solar accounted for the vast majority of newly built renewable power generation capacity in 2024, an indicator that the relatively cheap, flexible clean technology is outstripping beleaguered renewables like wind.

Data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) shows that global solar power capacity stood at 1865 gigawatts by the end of 2024, marking an increase of 452 GW from a year earlier. These additions accounted for three-quarters of global renewables capacity expansion last year.

The remainder came from the 113 GW of additional wind energy capacity built in 2024. Hydropower (+15 GW), bioenergy (+4.6 GW) and geothermal energy (+0.4 GW) all recorded much smaller additions.

The rise of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects is no accident. Unlike other renewables technologies like wind turbines, solar PV panels can be deployed everywhere from rooftops to farmland and utility-scale developments in the desert.

In many markets, solar projects also often have the lowest levelised cost of electricity, an industry metric for the average cost of electricity generation over a power plant’s lifetime. Swanson’s Law, an observation by the founder of SunPower Corporation that the costs of solar PV modules tend to drop by 75% every 10 years, has proven broadly true.

“Nearly every country in the world has solar potential and it is the cheapest and most flexible technology,” said Sonia Dunlop, CEO of industry association the Global Solar Council. She added that lower capital expenditure and resilient supply chains enable solar to be installed at less expense and in more places than other technologies.

Global direct investment committed to solar power projects in 2024 stood at $88bn, down slightly from $98bn a year earlier but double the $41bn pledged to wind projects, according to fDi Markets, which tracks greenfield project announcements. Wind investment stalled in 2024 amid supply chain challenges and political opposition in nascent markets like the US.

Global generation from solar PV has been doubling approximately every three years since 2016, and did so again between 2021 and 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. The IEA has forecast that solar needs to make up half of clean energy capacity by 2030 for the world to achieve its target of trebling global renewables capacity.

China remains the biggest driver of global deployment growth. Almost two-thirds of new renewable energy capacity built in 2024 was in China, leading Asia as a whole to account for 72% of the worldwide capacity additions, according to Irena data.

Artem Abramov, energy consultancy Rystad’s head of new energies research, says that “adding new solar is a no-brainer” in many markets. The supply chain, which is dominated by China, is also “extremely robust” after “enormous capacity overbuild” in 2022 and 2023 that has pushed down prices of solar modules and led Chinese manufacturers to sell abroad, he added.

Concerns about cheap Chinese imports of solar parts and panels have in recent years led trade groups in Europe and the US to call for policies to incentivise investment and protect domestic supply chain capabilities. But industry leaders argue that economic security policies risk increasing the global costs of the energy transition.

“The world often forgets that the only reason solar is so cheap today is thanks to China driving economies of scale and innovation over the past decade,” says Ms Dunlop of the Global Solar Council. BloombergNEF forecasts that 698 GW of solar power will be deployed in 2025, but hurdles to the energy transition are likely to remain.

“Continuous policy shifts toward a climate-sceptic agenda as well as outflow of oil and gas capital from renewables developments” will weigh on new clean energy asset buildout, concluded Mr Abramov.

fDi Markets