Global installed renewable energy capacity is expected to grow rapidly over the next five years. Global Data said in a release that the world’s installed renewable energy capacity is expected to more than double from 4.1 TW in 2025 to 8.4 TW by 2031.
The report links this growth to the scalability of solar PV deployment, sustained cost declines, and increasingly strong policy tailwinds. According to GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform, recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% for renewable energy over the same period.
GlobalData’s latest report, Renewable Energy: Strategic Intelligence, reveals that global renewable energy capacity will reach a new peak in 2025, with China leading the way in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, with wind installed at 699.5GW and solar installed at 1,550GW. While in many parts of the world, again led by China, renewable energy investment and capacity additions continue to accelerate to record levels, the United States is entering a phase defined by rising costs, increased volatility, and delays in project delivery.
Rehaan Aleem Shiredar force Analysts at GlobalData commented: “Solar and wind power will continue to be critical to the global renewable energy transition. In 2025, solar power will surpass wind and emerge as the largest source of renewable electricity generation. GlobalData predicts wind power generation will be 2,770 TWh in 2025, compared to 2,800 TWh for solar power.”
Trends in global renewable energy expansion
Solar power deployment in China is rapidly expanding due to carbon neutrality goals, expanded investment across the supply chain, and rapid cost reductions that make solar power one of the cheapest sources of electricity. China alone generated 1,150 TW, accounting for about 41% of the world’s solar power output last year.
The US and India followed, generating 486TWh and 189TWh respectively. In both countries, solar power output is increasing rapidly, supported by significant cost reductions, and policy regimes such as the United States’ Inflation Control Act and India’s flagship solar power project, in particular, are increasingly enabling and increasing mandates to decarbonize national power systems.
In 2025, solar power will continue to dominate global renewable energy capacity, accounting for approximately 56.1% of total installed capacity. Wind power followed with a share of 33.5%, followed by biopower with 5.3%.
AI-driven growth
Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a vital high-growth catalyst in the renewable energy sector, increasingly serving as the “brain” of systems to increase efficiency, reliability, and profitability. The intermittent nature of wind and solar power makes AI essential for ingesting and interpreting vast data streams, improving generation forecasting, optimizing storage dispatch, and coordinating smart grid operations.
Shiledar continued, “AI enables real-time supply and demand balancing, reducing power savings and operational costs while increasing resiliency across the grid. Industry leaders such as Vestas, ENERCON, JinkoSolar, and First Solar are deploying AI at scale to improve operational performance, reduce costs, and enhance asset reliability.”
Data centers drive renewable energy expansion
Data centers are emerging as a key driver of rapid expansion and strategic importance in the renewable energy space, driven primarily by the surge in power demand related to AI workloads. In response, hyperscalers and colocation operators are accelerating investments in sustainable power solutions to handle increasing loads while advancing decarbonization efforts.
Reflecting the scale and sustainability of AI-driven demand growth, technology companies are increasingly partnering with utilities and energy developers to secure renewable energy supplies for data center operations. For example, in December 2025, Google and NextEra Energy announced a partnership to develop gigawatt-scale AI data centers powered by clean energy. Meanwhile, Equinix has partnered with CleanMax on a 33MW captive renewable power project.
Schleder concluded: “After President Donald Trump’s second-term policy changes, renewable energy has entered a ‘two-speed’ expansion. U.S. federal support is tilting toward fossil fuels and away from green incentives, slow adoption, and rising costs, while a global shift continues due to falling costs, corporate demand, grid economics, and non-U.S. policies.
“In contrast, China’s clean energy economy is accelerating. In 2025, clean energy drove more than 90% of incremental investment growth, and renewable energy manufacturing and installation contributed to more than a third of China’s overall economic expansion. As a result, global renewable energy is increasingly decoupled from U.S. federal policy, and the U.S. faces deployment delays while the rest of the world scales up to record investment and capacity additions.”
