Record Renewable Generation in 2024 Leaves IRENA's 2035 Trajectory Dependent on Grid Investment
Global renewable electricity generation hit 9,836 TWh in 2024, but reaching the 78% share needed by 2035 requires grid spending to match the pace of capacity deployment.
A power system highlighted in an EnergyVoice energy security analysis published on Monday (2026-08-10) now generates close to 90% of its electricity from renewable sources, up from around 50% in 2000, showing what two decades of sustained investment in both generation and grid integration can compound to.6
The global average sits far below that. Renewables accounted for 31.7% of global electricity generation in 2024, according to IRENA's Renewable Energy Statistics 2026 report released in July. That leaves the electricity system 46 percentage points short of the 78% IRENA says will be needed to meet COP31 targets by 2035 — a gap that generation records alone will not close.4
Growth is at least accelerating. Global renewable electricity output rose 9.8% in 2024 to 9,836 TWh, the fastest annual expansion on record, while non-renewable generation edged up just 1.4%, IRENA reported. Solar generation climbed 30% to 2,778 TWh; wind output moved from 2,510 TWh to 2,715 TWh, according to The Economist.4,1
Asia drove the largest regional contribution. The continent produced 4,589 TWh of renewable electricity in 2024, up 14.3% year-on-year, making it the biggest source of clean power globally, IRENA said. Solar and wind delivered the sharpest gains across the region.4
New installations have kept pace into 2025. Close to 700 GW of capacity was added worldwide last year, a record annual total, pushing global renewable capacity to 5.2 terawatts — 49.5% of all installed power capacity, IRENA said. Renewables accounted for 85.7% of total capacity additions in 2025, down from 92.7% in 2024; the directional share is edging lower even as the absolute volume grows.3,4
Capital is following the momentum. Renewable energy investment is projected to reach $2.2 trillion this year, more than double the sum going into fossil fuels and equivalent to over 40% of the IEA's $3.3 trillion estimate for total global energy sector investment, according to the IEA. Solar alone is expected to draw approximately $450 billion.2
But electricity cannot be delivered without the infrastructure to carry it. The IEA has identified a lack of grid capacity as an emerging bottleneck, a constraint that threatens to limit how much of the installed renewable base can actually reach consumers. Ember Energy's analysis found significant untapped potential in hybrid projects attaching wind and solar to existing European hydropower sites, partly because those sites can leverage existing grid connections and avoid the queue for new ones.5
Demand pressures are tightening the timeline from the other direction. AI and data centres are projected to account for as much as 4% of global electricity consumption by 2030, the IEA said — a load that many grid operators had not modelled at this pace. Connection queues have already stretched to several years in parts of Europe and North America.2
Access financing presents a parallel constraint in developing markets. M-KOPA, cited as a prize winner in the EnergyVoice piece published on Monday (2026-08-10), has extended over $2 million in credit to expand pay-as-you-go solar access, showing that delivery-side innovation can extend energy reach in markets where grid infrastructure is thin and conventional connection timelines are measured in years, not months.6
The IEA calculates that solar photovoltaics met more than 25% of the world's new energy demand in 2024, ahead of natural gas at 17%, which means clean generation is already the primary new supply source globally in volume terms. The pressure on transmission networks is building faster than the wires designed to absorb it are being planned or financed — and that gap, rather than the generation figures, is where the trajectory toward 78% by 2035 is most likely to stall.1