Global renewable energy installed capacity is set to expand at a rapid pace over the next five years, driven by the high scalability of solar PV deployment, persistent cost deflation, and increasingly robust policy tailwinds. Worldwide renewable energy installed capacity is forecast to more than double, from 4.1TW in 2025 to 8.4TW by 2031, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% during the period, according to GlobalData a leading intelligence and productivity platform.
GlobalData’s latest report, “Renewable Energy: Strategic Intelligence” reveals that worldwide renewable energy capacity reached a new peak in 2025, with the Asia–Pacific (APAC) region dominating wind installations at 699.5GW and solar PV capacity at 1,550GW, led by China. 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 project delivery.
Rehaan Aleem Shiledar, Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Solar PV and wind will remain pivotal to the renewables transition globally. In 2025, solar PV emerged as the largest source of renewable electricity generation, surpassing wind. GlobalData estimates wind output at 2,770TWh in 2025, compared to 2,800TWh from solar PV.”
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. China alone generated 1,150TW, accounting for around 41% of global solar PV output last year.
The US and India followed, generating 486TWh and 189TWh, respectively. In both countries, solar PV output is rising rapidly, supported by steep cost reductions, increasingly enabling policy regimes—most notably the US Inflation Reduction Act and India’s flagship solar missions—and a strengthening imperative to decarbonize national power systems.
In 2025, solar PV continued to dominate the global renewable capacity mix, accounting for roughly 56.1% of total installed capacity. Wind followed with a 33.5% share, while biopower represented 5.3%.
Artificial Intelligence (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. Given the inherent intermittency of wind and solar generation, AI has become indispensable for ingesting and interpreting vast data streams, improving generation forecasting, optimizing storage dispatch, and coordinating smart-grid operations.
Shiledar continues:
“By enabling real-time balancing of supply and demand, AI reduces curtailment and operating costs while reinforcing overall grid resilience. Industry leaders such as Vestas, ENERCON, JinkoSolar, and First Solar are deploying AI at scale to boost operational performance, lower costs, and strengthen asset reliability.”
Data centers are emerging as a major, rapidly expanding, and strategically consequential driver in the renewable energy landscape, 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 decarbonization commitments.
Technology firms are increasingly partnering with utilities and energy developers to lock in renewable supply for data-center operations, reflecting the scale and persistence of AI-led demand growth. For example, Google and NextEra Energy announced a collaboration in December 2025 to develop gigawatt-scale AI data centers powered by clean energy, while Equinix partnered with CleanMax on a 33MW captive renewable power project.
Shiledar concludes:
“After second-term policy shifts under President Donald Trump, renewable energy is entering a “two-speed” expansion: 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 non ‑US policies.“
“By contrast, China’s clean-energy economy is accelerating. In 2025, clean energy drove over 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.”
