Renewables Statistics
Comprehensive historical review and current market trends in renewable energy
The IEA's Renewables Information provides a comprehensive review of historical and current market trends in OECD countries, including 2018 provisional data. It provides an overview of the development of renewables and waste in the world over 1990 to 2017, with some 2018 provisional data for some non-OECD countries.
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Supply
In 2017, world total primary energy supply (TPES) was 13 972 Mtoe, of which 13.5% was produced from renewable energy sources, which includes hydro, biofuels and waste, solar, wind, geothermal and tidal.
Due to its widespread use in developing countries for heating and cooking, solid biofuels/charcoal is by far the largest renewable energy source, and the second largest source is hydro. Liquid biofuels, wind, geothermal, solar, biogases, renewable municipal waste and tidal make up the rest of the renewables energy supply.
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Since 1990, renewable energy sources have grown at an average annual rate of 2.0%, which is slightly higher than the growth rate of world TPES, 1.7%.
Growth has been especially high for solar PV and wind power, which grew at average annual rates of 37.0% and 23.4% respectively. Biogases had the third highest growth rate at 11.9%, followed by solar thermal (11.2%) and liquid biofuels (9.7%).
Average annual growth rate Total TPES 1.7 Renewables 2 Solar PV 37 Wind 23.4 Biogases 11.9 Solar thermal 11.2 Liquid biofuels 9.7 Geothermal 3.5 Hydro 2.4 Solid biofuels/Charcoal 1
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Each OECD region also showed increases in the share of renewables in 2018 reaching 15.2% in OECD Europe, 9.1% in OECD Americas and 5.5% in OECD Asia/Oceania.
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Renewables showed a larger increase in average annual growth from 2000 to 2018 at 3.2% than from 1990 to 2000 at 1.7%. Higher growth rates were seen in modern renewables, such as solar PV, wind, liquid biofuels, biogases and solar thermal.
Average annual growth rate Total TPES 0.1 Renewable 3.2 Solar PV 40.1 Wind 19.9 Liquid biofuels 16.7 Biogases 8 Solar thermal 5.6 Solid biofuels/charcoal 1.6 Geothermal 1.3 Hydro 0.4
{"chart":{"type":"column","height":"45%"},"plotOptions":{"column":{"dataLabels":{"enabled":true,"format":"{point.y}%"}}},"legend":{"enabled":false},"xAxis":{"type":"category"},"title":{"text":"Average annual growth rates of renewables supply in OECD, 2000-2018"},"tooltip":{"valueSuffix":"%"},"yAxis":{"labels":{"format":"{value}%"},"max":50,"tickInterval":10},"series":[{"colorIndex":1}]}In comparison, solid biofuels and hydro influenced much of renewables growth between 1990 and 2000. Despite this, the contribution of modern renewables to the total energy supply is still minor. The combined share of liquid biofuels, wind, solar, biogases, renewable municipal waste, and tidal still represents only 3.7% of total primary energy supply. Nevertheless, the share of modern renewables in OECD countries out of all renewables increased dramatically from 3.1% in 1990 to 35.7% in 2018.
Hydro Solid Biofuels/Charcoal Geothermal Solar, wind, tidal Renewable municipal waste, liquid biofuels, biogases 1990 101911 135490 26455 2268 6099 1991 104645 138477 26933 2322 6655 1992 104134 145329 28230 2363 7143 1993 110455 140126 29171 2500 9734 1994 106400 141850 28711 2699 10537 1995 113946 146366 27678 2762 11575 1996 116759 150301 29317 2885 11670 1997 116708 149660 28652 3179 12799 1998 113483 152363 29550 3478 13643 1999 113350 148866 30170 5479 16453 2000 115316 150960 30354 6371 18013 2001 106823 142843 29533 6896 18755 2002 110904 144453 24916 8166 21590 2003 108947 152373 26526 9027 24193 2004 111578 157593 26983 10730 27585 2005 112042 165676 27842 12326 31805 2006 113887 165777 28123 14590 38929 2007 110676 168587 29806 17911 47032 2008 115160 169386 27342 22098 56018 2009 114557 165429 28320 26256 62614 2010 116791 179719 29247 32044 67916 2011 119860 174356 30314 40408 72648 2012 119989 183532 30067 47811 81378 2013 122021 192901 31325 56604 86572 2014 120846 190054 33085 63688 90155 2015 119086 189594 34649 73117 92608 2016 121547 187831 35741 80059 95824 2017 120503 192267 37048 91897 98158 2018p 122926 199851 38463 101453 99083
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On a global level, the majority of renewables are consumed in the residential, commercial and public services sectors. This is a consequence of the widespread use of solid biofuels in the residential sector in developing countries.
The transformation sector (electricity and heat) accounts for 38.6% of renewables consumption worldwide, while 41.7% are used in the residential, commercial and public sectors.
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In the OECD, the majority of the consumption of renewables has been in the transformation sector for the last three decades. In the other sectors, there has been a diversification of renewables demand, with the most significant trend being the steep growth of biofuels used for transport. In 2017, liquid biofuels and biogases used for transport constituted 10.5% of renewables consumption.
Electricity plants Combined heat & power plants Heat plants Other Industry Transport Residential, Commercial & Public 1990 138531.3965 32047.8642 2004.2757 402.0544 35209.9781 5.7471 64170.4223 2017 274540 45503.3939 7739.5111 1728.4006 69530.9884 56732.2085 84043
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