Renewable energy will surpass coal as the world's biggest source of electricity generation by 2025, according to the International Energy Agency's latest annual energy report Renewables 2022.
Growth of the renewables sector is expected to almost double in the next five years, with renewable power capacity expanding to nearly 2,400 GW globally, the report says. That's the equivalent of the currently installed power capacity of China and represents an 85% acceleration over the past five years.
The global energy crisis, coupled with energy security concerns spurred by Russia's war on Ukraine, has hastened the pace at which renewables are being adopted around the globe, according to the IEA report.
"Renewables were already expanding quickly, but the global energy crisis has kicked them into an extraordinary new phase of even faster growth as countries seek to capitalize on their energy security benefits," Fatih Birol, executive director of IEA, said in a statement. "This is a clear example of how the current energy crisis can be a historic turning point towards a cleaner and more secure energy system."
The report states that the industry will see declining shares for coal, natural gas, nuclear and oil generation and that renewables are the "only electricity generation source whose share is expected to grow." Electricity from wind and solar PV are also anticipated to more than double in the next five years, which means almost 20% of global power generation will come from those two sources by 2027.
This year's IEA report represents its largest-ever upward revision of its annual forecast, with this year's growth 30% higher than the amount of growth the agency forecasted last year.