Renewable energy investment is expanding across generation, grids, storage and manufacturing, but the measures are not interchangeable. The figures below distinguish 2024 estimates and observations from 2024–2030 forecasts, and separate investment dollars from capacity, costs and outcomes.
Key Renewable Energy Investment Statistics
The most broadly useful figures span global spending, deployment, economics and financing:
- In 2024, global energy investment was expected to exceed USD 3 trillion worldwide.
- In 2024, clean-energy technologies and infrastructure were expected to receive about USD 2 trillion worldwide.
- In 2024, China was expected to account for USD 675 billion of clean-energy investment.
- During 2024–2030, global annual renewable capacity additions were forecast to rise from 666 GW to almost 935 GW.
- During 2024–2030, more than 5,520 GW of renewable capacity was forecast to be added worldwide.
- Through 2030, solar PV and wind were forecast to provide 95% of renewable capacity additions worldwide.
- Through 2030, solar PV was forecast to account for almost 80% of worldwide renewable electricity expansion.
- In 2024, 91% of utility-scale renewable projects commissioned worldwide produced electricity below the cost of the cheapest new fossil-fuel alternative.
- In 2024, new onshore wind had a global weighted-average LCOE of USD 0.034/kWh.
- In 2024, new solar PV had a global weighted-average LCOE of USD 0.043/kWh.
- From 2010 to 2024, global weighted-average solar-PV LCOE declined 90%, from USD 0.417/kWh to USD 0.043/kWh.
- In 2024, renewables avoided an estimated USD 467 billion in fossil-fuel costs worldwide.
- During 2024–2030, China was forecast to install 3,207 GW of new renewable electricity capacity.
- In the IEA’s 2024 assessment, at least 1,650 GW of renewable capacity was in advanced development and waiting for grid connection worldwide.
- By the end of 2024, global solar-manufacturing capacity was expected to exceed 1,100 GW per year.
- In 2024, battery-storage cost was USD 192/kWh, down 93% from USD 2,571/kWh in 2010.
- In 2024, renewable power capacity additions reached 582 GW worldwide, up 19.8% from 2023.
Contents
- Key Renewable Energy Investment Statistics
- Global Renewable Energy Investment Trends
- Renewable Capacity Investment Forecasts Through 2030
- Renewable Project Costs, LCOE and Capital Requirements
- Regional Renewable Energy Investment and Finance
- Grid, Storage and Solar Manufacturing Investment Data
- Renewable Investment Outcomes and Development Finance
Global Renewable Energy Investment Trends
The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Investment 2024 places renewable investment inside a broader clean-energy category. That distinction matters because clean energy includes renewables plus grids, storage, nuclear, electric vehicles, efficiency, low-emissions fuels and heat pumps.
- Global energy investment was expected to exceed USD 3 trillion in 2024, according to the IEA’s estimate for the world; this was not a final outturn.
- Clean-energy technologies and infrastructure were expected to receive about USD 2 trillion worldwide in 2024.
- China was expected to account for USD 675 billion of clean-energy investment in 2024, a broader measure than renewable power alone.
- Clean-energy investment in emerging markets and developing economies outside China was expected to approach USD 320 billion in 2024, more than 50% above 2020.
- China’s clean-energy investment growth from 2020 to 2024 was reported at about 75%, while US clean-energy investment was estimated above USD 300 billion in 2024 and at 1.6 times its 2020 level.
Source: Overview and key findings – World Energy Investment 2024. These aggregates should not be read as renewable-only investment totals.
Renewable Capacity Investment Forecasts Through 2030
The IEA’s Renewables 2024 – Electricity chapter presents a main-case deployment forecast. Capacity additions are physical expansion measures, not investment dollars.
| Measure | Period | World forecast |
|---|---|---|
| Annual renewable additions | 2024 to 2030 | 666 GW to almost 935 GW |
| Cumulative renewable additions | 2024 to 2030 | More than 5,520 GW |
| Renewable deployment comparison | 2024–2030 vs. 2017–2023 | 2.6 times |
| Solar PV and wind share of additions | Through 2030 | 95% |
Solar PV was forecast to account for almost 80% of renewable electricity expansion worldwide through 2030. Distributed applications—including residential, commercial, industrial and off-grid projects—were forecast to make up almost 40% of overall PV expansion.
- Onshore wind cumulative additions were forecast to reach 846 GW by 2030.
- Offshore wind capacity growth was forecast at 212 GW by 2030, with the annual offshore-wind market rising from 9.5 GW in 2023 to more than 45 GW in 2030.
- Hydropower was forecast to add more than 165 GW during 2024–2030.
Source: Renewables 2024 – Electricity. All figures in this section are IEA main-case forecasts rather than realized deployment.
Renewable Project Costs, LCOE and Capital Requirements
IRENA’s Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024 uses project-level data and weighted averages. Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) summarizes the cost of generated electricity, while total installed cost measures construction cost per unit of capacity; neither is the same as investment volume.
| Technology | 2024 global weighted-average LCOE | 2024 total installed cost |
|---|---|---|
| Onshore wind | USD 0.034/kWh | USD 1,041/kW |
| Solar PV | USD 0.043/kWh | USD 691/kW |
| Hydropower | USD 0.057/kWh | USD 2,267/kW |
| Offshore wind | Not supplied | USD 2,852/kW |
In 2024, 91% of utility-scale renewable projects commissioned worldwide generated electricity below the cost of the cheapest new fossil-fuel alternative, based on IRENA’s LCOE comparison.
- Global weighted-average solar-PV LCOE declined from USD 0.417/kWh in 2010 to USD 0.043/kWh in 2024, a 90% reduction.
- Solar-PV total installed cost was USD 691/kW in 2024, 87% below its 2010 level.
- Battery-storage cost fell from USD 2,571/kWh in 2010 to USD 192/kWh in 2024, a 93% decline.
- New utility-scale solar-PV capacity factor rose from 15% in 2010 to 17.4% in 2024.
- Renewables avoided an estimated USD 467 billion in fossil-fuel costs worldwide in 2024; this is an avoided-cost estimate, not a measured investment return.
Source: Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024. IRENA notes that its database is broad but not exhaustive, and project mix affects annual weighted averages.
Regional Renewable Energy Investment and Finance
Regional deployment is concentrated, while finance statistics depend on the universe being measured. The following IEA figures are capacity forecasts, and the World Bank figures cover defined mitigation-finance or private-participation datasets.
| Geography | Measure | Period or status |
|---|---|---|
| China | New renewable electricity capacity | 3,207 GW, 2024–2030 forecast |
| China | Share of global annual additions | Almost 60% in 2030 forecast |
| China | Share of global cumulative capacity | At least half at end-2030 forecast |
| United States | Renewable expansion | Almost 500 GW, 2024–2030 forecast |
| India | Annual renewable additions | 15 GW in 2023 to 62 GW in 2030 forecast |
China was also forecast to account for almost 40% of global hydropower expansion during 2024–2030. The IEA attributes part of the US forecast to Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives, while these figures remain forecasts rather than completed investment.
In the World Bank climate-finance overview, renewable energy represented 57% of mitigation finance, or USD 324 billion, in the reported period. Solar PV plus onshore and offshore wind represented more than 91% of that renewable mitigation-finance amount; this is not a total for all renewable investment.
Source: Renewables 2024 – Electricity and Overview of Climate Finance in Asset Recycling Public Private Partnership.
Grid, Storage and Solar Manufacturing Investment Data
Grid access and supply-chain capacity shape whether announced renewable projects can become operating assets. The IEA’s 2024 assessment shows a large queue of advanced projects alongside substantial manufacturing capacity and cancelled plans.
- At least 1,650 GW of renewable capacity worldwide was in advanced development and waiting for grid connection in the IEA’s 2024 assessment; queued capacity is not committed investment.
- The global grid-connection queue was 150 GW larger than one year earlier in the 2024 assessment.
- Global solar-manufacturing capacity was expected to exceed 1,100 GW of annual capacity by the end of 2024; this is manufacturing capacity, not production or installed capacity.
- About 300 GW of polysilicon-manufacturing projects and 200 GW of wafer-manufacturing projects were cancelled in the assessment.
- Those cancelled polysilicon and wafer projects represented approximately USD 25 billion of planned investment.
- Solar PV module costs decreased 30% over the two years preceding the IEA’s 2024 report.
- In the first half of 2024, almost 60% of renewable-capacity auction awards worldwide included non-price criteria such as sustainability, supply-chain security or system integration.
Source: Executive summary – Renewables 2024. Auction shares describe award criteria, not investment shares.
Renewable Investment Outcomes and Development Finance
Measured outcomes include generation and installed-cost changes, while development-finance indicators describe narrower project populations. Keeping those definitions separate prevents a finance statistic from being treated as a global investment total.
- Hydropower generated around 4,270.2 TWh worldwide in 2023 and represented 47.8% of renewable electricity generation that year.
- Global renewable power capacity additions reached 582 GW in 2024, up 19.8% from 2023, according to IRENA.
- The global weighted-average total installed cost of new hydropower rose from USD 1,494/kW in 2010 to USD 2,267/kW in 2024.
- Global weighted-average geothermal total installed cost was USD 4,015/kW in 2024, 15% below 2023; IRENA cautions that limited project counts make annual averages sensitive to project mix.
- Global weighted-average CSP LCOE fell from USD 0.402/kWh in 2010 to USD 0.092/kWh in 2024, a 77% decline, with sparse deployment affecting comparisons.
The World Bank’s Private Participation in Infrastructure 2024 Annual Report found that the share of electricity-generation projects using renewable resources in low- and middle-income-country PPI fell from 56% of DEFI-backed projects in 2019 to 16% in 2024. This is a share of DEFI-backed projects, not renewable capacity or dollar investment.
Sources: Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024 and Private Participation in Infrastructure 2024 Annual Report.