Renewable additions are booming

The world is expected to add renewable capacity at a record rate again in 2025, driven by continued strong growth in solar additions and the leading role of China.

According to Ember’s research, 2025 is expected to deliver record renewable additions of 793 GW. This is a rise of 11%, compared to 717 GW in 2024. Solar additions are forecast to rise by 9% and wind by 21%. This 11% rise in total renewables additions in 2025 builds off rapid growth of 22% in 2023 and 66% in 2022. 

This is based on new Ember analysis of monthly solar and wind deployment data up to September 2025. In the first nine months of 2025, global solar installations were up 33% and wind 48%, compared to the first nine months in 2024. This growth was spurred in part by developers racing to complete projects in China before new rules on wind and solar compensation came into effect in June this year.

However, the installations in the final quarter of 2025 are expected to be lower than in 2024, which means overall annual growth rate will be substantially lower. Ember estimates Q4 installations by assuming that deployment in October and November continues at the same monthly levels as Q3-2025 (in line with trends seen in previous years). For December 2025, the estimate assumes a smaller year-end rise than in December 2024, on the basis that China is unlikely to see as big of a surge after the large gains in May.

Renewable capacity additions since 2022 have been driven by strong wind growth and an exponential rise in solar capacity additions. Annual solar additions in 2025 are forecast to be four times higher than in 2021, whilst wind additions have risen by 50%. This year solar additions are nearly five times that of wind.

In 2025, Ember forecasts that China will install 66% of global solar capacity and 69% of global wind capacity. As recently as 2022, China made up less than half of global solar and wind additions (46% and 47% respectively). This remarkable growth means China has been the largest contributor by far to the growth in global renewable deployment.