Before fossil dominance
Wood and hydropower were foundational energy sources for heating, cooking, milling, and mechanical work, and they remained important until fossil fuels displaced them in the industrial era.
Past · Present · Future
Renewable energy moved from local necessity to global strategy.
Hydropower and wood dominated early renewable use, while the modern expansion of wind, solar, and other low-carbon technologies accelerated after the energy crises of the 1970s and has become central to the global energy transition.
History
Renewable energy is not new. Traditional societies relied on wood, water, wind, and direct solar heat long before fossil fuels became dominant, and the modern era of commercial solar and wind grew out of twentieth-century research and the policy response to oil shocks.
Modern revival
Solar research accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s, while the energy crises of the 1970s gave major momentum to wind and other alternatives by pushing governments to diversify supply.
Commercial scale
Countries such as Denmark helped prove wind power at scale, and later decades saw solar photovoltaics and wind become globally deployable technologies rather than niche experiments.
Current status
Renewables now sit at the center of power-system growth. Recent global data show that most new generating capacity is renewable, with solar leading additions and wind following, while the gap between fast-moving regions and slower adopters remains wide.
Where the market stands
IRENA reporting on 2025 capacity growth shows total renewable power capacity reaching 5.2 terawatts after adding 692 gigawatts in a single year, with solar alone contributing about 511 gigawatts and wind adding about 159 gigawatts.
Together, solar and wind made up nearly all net renewable additions, reflecting falling costs, industrial scale, and strong policy support in major markets.
Solar leads. Solar accounted for roughly three quarters of renewable capacity additions in 2025.
Wind remains second. Wind continues to be the other major pillar of new renewable generation capacity.
Geography matters. Asia holds the largest share of total installed renewable capacity, while some regions still lag and face greater energy security vulnerability.
Future
The next phase is not only about adding more solar panels and turbines. It is about building grids, storage, flexible demand, electrified transport and industry, and a faster but fairer transition across rich and developing economies.
Scale
Net-zero pathways described by the IEA require annual renewable installations to rise sharply by 2030, including very large yearly additions of both solar and wind.
Systems
Higher renewable penetration depends on more transmission, storage, grid flexibility, and electrification so that buildings, transport, and industry can use clean power more effectively.
Equity
The future of renewables also depends on whether capital, technology, and infrastructure reach countries that currently install far less clean energy than leading markets.
A likely direction
Most credible outlooks point toward a world where renewables supply a much larger share of electricity, with solar becoming a leading energy source and wind continuing to expand strongly. But the quality of that future will depend on grid investment, policy consistency, supply chains, and the speed at which the rest of the economy electrifies.