Africa adds 11.3GW renewable as world posts 5,149GW in 2025

15.9% increase is Africa’s highest ever
Ethiopia, South Africa, Egypt drive growth
Asia leads global renewable capacity

Africa recorded its highest addition to global renewable capacity when it saw a 15.9 percent uptick bring in 11.3 gigawatts (GW) to the total as the world posted 5,149 gigawatts of renewable power in 2025, according to a new report just released and made available to Business a.m.

The report, “Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026”, compiled and released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), shows that the world recorded a 15.5 percent growth or an addition of 692 GW to total renewable capacity in 2025.

Renewable energy continues to record higher capacity expansion as the report shows it was responsible for 85.6 percent share of total capacity expansion with non-renewables accounting for a smaller share of the additional pie.

A region by region performance statistics in the report revealed what IRENA described as “persistent and significant disparities amongst countries and regions.”

It disclosed that Asia continued to lead with a 74.2 percent contribution to all new renewable capacity, noting this to be 513.3 GW representing a growth rate of 21.6 percent.

Africa, which recorded its highest growth ever, saw its 15.9 percent rise or 11.3 GW, largely driven by Ethiopia, South Africa, and Egypt.

The Middle East was also recorded to have produced its largest annual growth as it rose by 28.9 percent led by Saudi Arabia.

With 2, 891 GW Asia continues to lead in total global renewable capacity. Europe was next with 934 GW in total. Central America and the Caribbean had the lowest renewables capacity with a total of 21 GW in 2025, IRENA stated in the report.

It noted that the regional disparity exposes the vulnerability of economies with low share of renewables, and underscores the urgent need to increase the share for their energy security.

Francesco La Camera, director-general of IRENA, said, “In the midst of uncertain time, renewable energy remains consistent and steadfast in its expansion. This not only indicates market preference but also makes a strong case for renewable energy resilience with brutal clarity. A more decentralised energy system, with a growing share of renewables and more market players, is structurally more resilient. Countries that invested in the energy transition are weathering this crisis with less economic damage, as they boost energy security, resilience and competitiveness.”

IRENA observed that geopolitical tensions have once again thrusted energy into the global spotlight with escalation in the Middle East raising fresh concerns over supply security and fossil fuel price volatility.

“Against this backdrop, renewable energy is gaining attention to build more resilient systems that are less vulnerable to international shocks,” the agency stated, adding that as renewables are homegrown, low-cost and can be deployed immediately, increasing their share in national energy systems can reduce exposure to international fuel markets.

A further breakdown of the statistics show that as with the previous year, solar energy, accounting for 511 GW or around 75 percent of total renewables capacity addition, led the increase.

It was followed by wind energy which added 159 GW. Jointly, solar and wind accounted for 96.8 percent of all net renewable additions last year, reflecting the biggest cost decrease among all renewable technologies.

Bioenergy took the third place with 2.3 percent annual growth as it added 3.4 GW to total renewable energy expansion.

A further technology highlights of the report’s findings are provided below:

Solar energy: solar photovoltaics accounted for 510.3 GW out of 511.2 GW of total solar power additions in 2025.
Renewable hydropower (excluding pumped hydro): 18.4 GW was added in 2025, with 96 percent of the increase coming from China. Ethiopia, India, Tanzania, Bhutan, Viet Nam, Canada, Austria, Indonesia and Nepal, respectively added more than 0.5 GW.
Wind energy: capacity grew by 14 percent from 2024, with record additions of 158.7 GW in 2025. China accounted for nearly three-quarters of the expansion, adding 119.4 GW, while India saw an increase of 6.3 GW.
Bioenergy: capacity increased by 3.4 GW, led by Japan, which more than doubled its bioenergy capacity expansion from 2024, adding 1.1 GW in 2025. China followed with capacity additions of 0.8 GW and Brazil with 0.6 GW additions.
Geothermal energy: capacity grew at a similar rate to the previous year at 1.7 percent, adding 0.3 GW in 2025. The Philippines and Indonesia each contributed 0.1 GW of the additions, followed by Germany, Türkiye and Japan.
Off-grid electricity (excluding Eurasia, Europe and North America): expanded by 1.7 GW, led by solar power with 1.5 GW. A broad range of bioenergy types added 0.2 GW to the total addition of off-grid capacity.