The world broke a major clean energy record in 2025, adding 814 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power capacity. That’s a 17% jump from the 696 GW added in 2024. It’s also the fastest growth the world’s ever seen for these two energy sources combined.
Solar led the way by a wide margin. It added 647 GW, which is nearly four times more than wind. That pushed total global solar capacity to 2.87 terawatts (TW). Solar’s now among the fastest-growing electricity sources in history.
Solar crushed it in 2025 — 647 GW added, nearly four times wind, making it the fastest-growing electricity source in history.
Wind added 167 GW, a 47% surge from the 113 GW added in 2024. Together, solar and wind reached a combined 4.17 TW of total capacity worldwide.
All that new capacity can generate around 1.05 petawatt-hours (PWh) of electricity each year. That’s enough to replace more than one-seventh of the world’s gas-fired power generation.
It’s also equal to 1.8 times Qatar’s annual liquefied natural gas exports. Countries that’ve ramped up solar and wind are saving an estimated $138 billion in gas import costs.
The growth wasn’t limited to one region. In the European Union, solar capacity grew 18.6% to 415 GW.
EU wind capacity reached 247 GW, a 6% increase. Turkey also saw strong gains, with solar capacity hitting 25.1 GW and wind reaching 14.8 GW. At the end of 2025, Turkey’s per-capita solar stood at 286 watts per person, compared to the EU’s 924 W and the world average of 349 W.
In the United States, solar and storage reportedly made up 84% of new electric generating capacity added in 2024, a trend that carried momentum into 2025’s record-breaking figures. Solar and wind together generated an estimated 853,210 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2025. That’s enough to power approximately 79 million average American homes.
Solar generation grew roughly 28% from 2024, while wind grew around 3%. Since 2016, the US has roughly tripled its total electricity output from these two sources.
Looking ahead, the International Energy Agency predicts the world’ll add 4,600 GW of renewable capacity between 2025 and 2030. That’s double what was added in the previous five years. Nearly two-thirds of capacity added globally in 2025 came online in China, underscoring how dominant one country’s buildout has been in driving these record totals.
References
- https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/wind-solar-built-world-record
- https://balkangreenenergynews.com/world-adds-record-814-gw-of-solar-wind-in-2025/
- https://electrek.co/2026/03/19/the-world-added-a-record-814-gw-wind-solar/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spSOp5s_6_A
- https://www.livenowfox.com/news/2025-record-levels-solar-wind-power-us-where
- https://www.altuspower.com/post/state-of-solar-2025-sunny-stats-about-solar-power-in-the-u-s-and-globally
