London 6th November 2025: A new analysis from energy think tank Ember finds that the world is on track to add record levels of renewable energy again in 2025, meaning only a modest rise in annual additions is needed to triple global renewables by 2030. However, despite the rapid acceleration on the ground, governments’ 2030 targets remain aligned with only a doubling of renewable capacity, creating uncertainty over whether tripling will be achieved.
New Ember analysis of monthly solar and wind deployment data up to September shows that 2025 is in for another record year – driven primarily by solar and China’s continued deployment. The report shows that 793 GW of renewables capacity is expected to be added during 2025, a rise of 11%, compared to 717 GW in 2024. This builds off rapid growth of 22% in 2023 and 66% in 2022. Solar additions are projected to rise by 9% and wind by 21%, although solar additions are expected to grow more in absolute terms. China is projected to account for 66% of global solar capacity and 69% of global wind capacity additions in 2025.
Because of the fast rises in additions in 2023, 2024 and now 2025, annual additions do not need to continue to grow fast – but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. To achieve the global tripling target, renewable capacity additions needed to rise by 21% every year from 2023 to 2030, and so far they have averaged 29% annually from 2023 to 2025, so additions now only need to rise by 12% per year from 2026 to 2030. The latest IEA renewables main case forecast shows only a 15% capacity shortfall to global tripling by 2030. However, the shortfall in generation is much larger at 28%, because the capacity shortfall comes primarily from wind and hydro, which generate more electricity per unit of capacity than solar.
