The worldwide renewable energy installed capacity is forecast to more than double to 8.4 TW by 2031, from 4.1 TW in 2025, and register a compound annual growth rate of 13% over the next five years, says market intelligence and consulting company GlobalData.

Global renewable energy capacity reached a new peak in 2025, with the Asia–Pacific region dominating wind installations at 699.5 GW and solar PV capacity at 1 550 GW, led by China, the GlobalData 'Renewable Energy: Strategic Intelligence' report shows.

Across much of the world, again anchored by China, renewable investment and capacity additions continue to accelerate to record levels, while the US enters a phase defined by higher costs, increased volatility and slower renewable project delivery, GlobalData notes.

“Solar PV and wind will remain pivotal to the renewables transition globally,” says GlobalData power analyst Rehaan Aleem Shiledar.

In 2025, solar PV emerged as the largest source of renewable electricity generation, surpassing wind. GlobalData estimates wind output at 2 770 TWh in 2025, compared with 2 800 TWh from solar PV, he says.

PV deployment in China is scaling rapidly, driven by carbon‑neutrality objectives, expansive investment throughout the supply chain and sharp cost reductions that have positioned solar among the cheapest sources of electricity, the report shows.

China alone generated 1 150 TWh, thereby accounting for around 41% of global solar PV output in 2025.

The US followed, generating 486 TWh during the year, while India generated 189 TWh.

In both countries, solar PV output is rising rapidly, supported by steep cost reductions, enabling policy regimes, most notably the US Inflation Reduction Act and India’s flagship solar missions, and a strengthening imperative to decarbonise national power systems, GlobalData says.

In 2025, solar PV continued to dominate the global renewable capacity mix, accounting for about 56.1% of total installed capacity. Wind followed with a 33.5% share, while biopower accounted for 5.3% of global renewables capacity.

Meanwhile, AI is emerging as a pivotal, high-growth catalyst within the renewable-energy sector, increasingly serving as the system’s “brain” to enhance efficiency, reliability and profitability, Shiledar points out.

Given the inherent intermittency of wind and solar generation, AI has become indispensable for ingesting and interpreting vast data streams, improving generation forecasting, optimising storage dispatch and coordinating smart-grid operations.

“By enabling real-time balancing of supply and demand, AI reduces curtailment and operating costs while reinforcing overall grid resilience. Renewable energy industry companies are deploying AI at scale to boost operational performance, lower costs, and strengthen asset reliability,” he says.

Further, data centres are emerging as a major, rapidly expanding and strategically consequential driver in the renewable-energy landscape, which is propelled largely by the surging electricity demand associated with AI workloads.

In response, hyperscalers and colocation operators are accelerating investment in sustainable power solutions to meet rising loads while advancing decarbonisation commitments.

To this end, technology firms are increasingly partnering with utilities and energy developers to lock in renewable supply for data-centre operations, reflecting the scale and persistence of AI-led demand growth, the report shows.

“After second-term policy shifts under US President Donald Trump, renewable energy is entering a two-speed expansion, in which US federal support is tilting toward fossil fuels and away from green incentives, slowing deployment and raising costs, while the global transition continues, driven by falling costs, corporate demand, grid economics and policies,” says Shiledar.

China’s clean-energy economy is accelerating. In 2025, clean energy drove more than 90% of incremental investment growth, and renewable manufacturing and installation contributed more than a third of overall economic expansion in the country.

“As a result, global renewables are increasingly decoupling from US federal policy, with the US facing slower rollout, while the rest of the world scales to record investment and capacity additions,” he says.