IRENA has published an updated renewable energy report

IRENA, International Renewable Energy Agency, has published its new report on renewable energy production. You can access the full report here.

In 2019, the total amount of electricity generated from renewables was 6 963 TWh. Renewable hydro accounted for about 61% of this (4 207 TWh), followed by wind energy (1 412 TWh), solar energy (693 TWh), bioenergy (558 TWh), geothermal energy (92 TWh) and marine energy (1 TWh).

Bioenergy generation was divided as follows: 389 TWh (69%) from solid biofuels; 92 TWh (20%) from biogas; 69 TWh (10%) from renewable municipal waste; and 8 TWh (1%) from liquid biofuels.

Renewable electricity generation in 2019 was 361 TWh higher than in 2018, an increase of 5.5%. Generation growth was slightly lower than in 2018, due to an upward revision of the data for 2018. Solar and wind generation continued to grow strongly, although growth in solar was slightly lower than in 2018. Bioenergy generation also increased by a lot more than in previous years (+31 TWh).

Solar and wind generation in 2019 increased by 23% and 12% respectively. Together, these two sources of energy continue to dominate growth in renewable generation, accounting for 71% of growth since 2015.

Renewable electricity generation by region

As in other recent years, Asia accounted for most growth in renewable electricity generation, with an increase of245 TWh in 2019. Asia’s share of global renewable generation also continued to increase, reaching 42%. Europe and North America have shares of 19% and 18% respectively, followed by South America (11%) and Eurasia (5%).In 2019, renewable hydro generation contracted in most regions, but expanded by almost 90 TWh in Asia,accounting for all of the growth in global generation. Most growth in wind generation occurred in Europe and Asia (+58 TWh and +51 TWh respectively), followed by North America (+25 TWh). Asia also accounted for most of the increase in solar generation (+77 TWh out of the global increase of +128 TWh)