IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 11, NO.
6, NOVEMBER 2021
Global Progress Toward Renewable Electricity:
Tracking the Role of Solar
Nancy M. Haegel , Member, IEEE, and Sarah R. Kurtz , Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Renewable electricity is growing rapidly, with solar
electricity growing relatively faster than any other fuel source in the
last ten years. As the world accelerates its transition to clean energy,
it is useful to track the rate of growth, but the data are tracked in
different ways from different sources. This periodic publication
collects data from multiple sources and presents it systematically
as a convenient reference for IEEE JPV readers.
Index Terms—Net expansions, renewable energy sources, solar
energy, solar power generation.
I. INTRODUCTION
LECTRICITY from renewable energy sources is growing
E rapidly, both in absolute magnitude and as a fraction of
global generation. Total electricity from all sources consumed
globally in 2020 was ∼27 000 TWh, representing about 17% of
total energy consumption [1]. The share of total nonhydro re-
newables power generation approached 12%, surpassing nuclear
generation [1]. For 2020, newly installed generating capacity
was 83% renewable energy – solar, wind, and hydroelectric.
These values illustrate that, at this stage in the global transition
to a clean, sustainable energy system, we face both the challenge
and the opportunity associated with a massive system undergo-
ing a rapid rate of change. Our future will be determined by
understanding and making choices, not just about our current
point in time, but our rate of change – and the rate of change of
the rate of change.
Photovoltaics (PV) is playing a significant role in this energy
transition and, along with wind energy, is growing at a rapid
rate. Graphs of deployed PV capacity have seen their axes shift
from kW to MW to GW in less than 20 years, and the milestone
of 1 TW of installed global capacity is likely to be reached in
the next two years. In 1990, the percentage of global electricity
generated by PV was less than 0.0007%. For 2020, that number
was 3.4%, a factor of change of almost 5000. Corresponding
Manuscript received May 27, 2021; revised July 31, 2021; accepted August
3, 2021. Date of publication September 20, 2021; date of current version
October 21, 2021. This work was supported in part by the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract DE-AC36-08GO28308.
(Corresponding author: Sarah R. Kurtz.)
Nancy M. Haegel is with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden,
CO 80401 USA (e-mail: nancy.haegel@nrel.gov).
Sarah R. Kurtz is with the University of California Merced, Merced, CA
95343 USA, and also with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden,
CO 80401 USA (e-mail: skurtz@ucmerced.edu).
Color versions of one or more figures in this article are available at
https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2021.3104149.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2021.3104149
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
1335
growth in total global electricity generation from all fuels in that
same time frame went from 11 957 to 26 823 TWh, a factor of
about 2.3 [1].
The goal of this article is to present data, in both graphical and
tabular form, on the global progress toward renewable energy.
Tracking progress over time provides not only important history
but also a basis for anticipating future milestones and transitions.
Multiple entities and institutions provide this global energy
data on a yearly basis. This article seeks to assemble a set of
key sources to track both long-term trends and yearly changes.
Different institutions may have variations in original sources or
methodologies and may change methodologies over time. We
hope it will be valuable, therefore, to assemble a collection of
frequently used and cited sources so that these variations can be
appreciated in context relative to overall trends.
We present the following three sets of graphs:
1) annual generation by broad fuel source for global electricity
(Section II);
2) yearly generation and newly installed capacity for specific
fuel sources with a focus on renewables (Section III);
3) generation and capacity over time with a more detailed
breakout of fuel sources including PV (Section IV). Data are
summarized from six primary sources: the Statistical Review of
World Energy, published yearly by BP [2]; the international data
presented by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
[3]; the World Nuclear Association (WNA) [4], the International
Energy Agency (IEA) [5]; the International Renewable Energy
Agency (IRENA) [6], and REN21 [7]. Short summaries of the
mission and history for these six organizations are provided in
the Appendix. We will make yearly updates and provide the
PV community with a consistent source of data and figures to
monitor and present progress over time. As applications and sec-
tor coupling increase, the report may be expanded to include PV
sectors (e.g., utility, commercial, residential, building integrated,
agriPV, etc.) and critical related technologies (e.g., storage).
II. TRACKING PROGRESS TOWARD RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY
Fig. 1 shows yearly global electricity generation (a) and
generating capacity (b) from 1990 to 2020. Source data are
presented in Tables I and II, respectively, in the Appendix. Data
from the Statistical Review of Energy, now in its 70th edition and
representing the longest running compilation of global energy
statistics [8], are indicated in Fig. 1(a) by solid lines, with open
circles used to mark other data sources as indicated. For Fig. 1(b),
solid lines represent the data in bold in Table II, with open
1336
Fig. 1. (a) Annual electricity generation and (b) electricity generating capacity.
Data are tabulated in Tables I and II with lines for the bolded data and open circles
for the other sources.
circles used to mark the other data sources. One sees that source
variations, although of interest for detailed understanding and
analysis, are not significant when assessing major trends over
time.
Electricity generation, a measure of energy provided, is pre-
sented in TWh, where 1 TWh = 3.6 x 1015 J. Installed nameplate
capacity, commonly reported in W, MW, or GW depending
on system size, is the rated output of a generator or other
electric power production equipment under specific conditions
designated by the manufacturer. The “capacity factor” is the
ratio of the actual output of a system or collection of sys-
tems under true operating conditions (reflecting e.g., variable
resource, facility downtime, performance variations, large scale
climate effects, etc.) and the output of that electricity source
operating continuously at its commercial product or plant rating.
Capacity factors for electricity generating technologies can vary
significantly, both within a technology depending on the perfor-
mance, and between technologies as determined by the physics
of the particular energy conversion process. Actual electricity
generation [Fig. 1(a)] is the most relevant to understand and
track the evolution of the energy system in terms of contributing
IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 11, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2021
fuel sources. Capacity [Fig. 1(b)] allows one to understand and
track global installations and new technology investment.
Different organizations report their source data using different
fuel subcategories. In Fig. 1, the BP values for fossil generation
and capacity are determined by summing component data for
oil, gas, coal and “other” (where “other” is pumped hydro,
nonrenewable waste, and statistical discrepancies) [1] to obtain
a total fossil value. Nonhydro renewable totals are calculated
by subtracting the sum of total fossil, nuclear and hydro from
the total electricity value. This addresses the fact that individual
values for certain nonhydro renewable components (PV, wind,
concentrating solar power, geothermal, etc.) were not uniformly
reported in earlier years, though that situation is evolving rapidly.
The EIA values are taken directly from the website [9] by
selecting the desired categories.
Several recent transitions are worth noting in Fig. 1. Electric-
ity generation from combined nonhydro renewables (primarily
PV and wind) reached and exceeded generation from nuclear
power sources in 2019 and is poised to exceed electricity gen-
erated from hydropower worldwide in the next few years. The
combined capacity for nonhydro renewables now exceeds both
conventional hydroelectric power and nuclear, reflecting the
rapid growth in PV and wind installation. Finally, continued
projected growth in nonhydro renewables, compared to the
growth rate in total electricity, suggests major potential for
future electrification of other energy sectors, with corresponding
benefits to overall efficiency and decarbonization.
III. TRACKING THE RATE OF CHANGE
In Fig. 2(a)–(c), we plot data for the past five years (2016–
2020) for (a) global fraction of electricity generation, (b) global
fraction of electricity generating capacity, and (c) global fraction
of net expansions of electricity generating capacity for the
given year. Data for fossil, nuclear, and hydro are drawn from
Table I and are summarized by year in Tables III–VII. Data
for wind, solar, and other technologies are drawn from Table
VIII and also summarized in Tables III–VII, with the electricity
generation data in Fig. 2(a) taken from Tables I and VIII and
the electricity-generation capacity data in Fig. 2(b) taken from
Tables II and IX. The net expansions of the electricity-generating
capacity data in Fig. 2(c) are obtained by subtracting the data
in Fig. 2(b) for each year from the following year. The choice
of data sets to use for Fig. 2 and tabulated in Tables III–VII is
detailed in the Appendix. Some values in Tables III–VII are not
directly available and were derived indirectly from the references
as described in the Appendix.
The pie charts illustrate themes from the introduction: a
massive system, dominated by fossil energy [Fig. 2(a)], under-
going a rapid rate of change [Fig. 2(c)]. We plot electricity
generation, generating capacity, and net capacity expansions
(new installation minus any decommissioning) to highlight both
where we stand and the rate of change that will drive the future
electricity generating mix. Combined renewables (solar, wind,
hydro, geothermal, and biomass) constitute more than 50%
of capacity expansions for the past five years. PV and wind
combined alone are more than 50% of capacity expansion for
HAEGEL AND KURTZ: GLOBAL PROGRESS TOWARD RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY: TRACKING THE ROLE OF SOLAR 1337

Fig. 2. (a) Pie charts showing global share of electricity generation by technology for the indicated years. Data taken from Tables I and VIII and summarized
in Tables III–VII (see Appendix). The “other” category includes biomass and geothermal. (b) Pie charts showing global share of electricity-generation capacity
by technology for the indicated years. Data taken from Tables II and IX and summarized in Tables III–VII (see Appendix for additional details). (c) Pie charts
showing global share of net expansions of electricity-generation capacity by technology for the indicated years. Data taken from Tables II and IX and summarized in
Table III–VIII (see Appendix for additional details).

the past four years. Although the fractional global contribution
of PV to electricity generation, growing from 1.1% in 2015 to
3.4% in 2020, is still relatively small, the relative rate of change
is large, representing a tripling in just five years. These trends
have continued despite the impact of the global pandemic, and
policy and emerging technology issues including tariffs, local
price structuring, and the growing role of storage and sector
coupling.
IV. TRACKING THE ROLE OF PV
Fig. 3 again shows yearly global electricity generation (a) and
generating capacity (b) from 1990 to 2020, but this time breaking
out the contributing technologies to the “nonhydro renewables”
from Fig. 1. Source data are presented in Table VIII and IX,
respectively. In Fig. 3(a), the solid lines again represent data
from [1], with open circles used to mark other data sources. For
Fig. 3(b), solid lines represent the data in bold in Table IX, with
open circles used to mark the other data sources. As mentioned
previously, different organizations have different mission goals
and focus and report source data using different fuel subcate-
gories. By looking at these in combination, one can track a wide
range of trends over time. We note again that source variations,
although of interest for detailed understanding and analysis, are
relatively minor when assessing major trends over time.
The rapid growth in solar PV and wind since 2000, reflected
in the pie charts for 2016–2020, has led to several milestones
in the last few years. Combined wind and solar PV global
capacity exceed 1 TW and are contributing ∼9% of global
electricity. With regard to fossil fuels, electricity generation from
natural gas has increased, generation from coal has flattened and
generation from oil has decreased. For nonhydro renewables,
every technology – wind, solar PV, biomass, geothermal and
concentrating solar power (CSP) - is increasing in magnitude of
electricity generated.
Five different sources for solar (BP, EIA, IEA, IRENA, and
REN21) are presented in Table IX and utilized in Figs. 2 and 3.
Variations in these values can arise for multiple reasons. Among
these are as follows:
1) variations in reporting PV capacity as Wdc or Wac ;
2) differences that arise in reports of PV shipments versus
installations, variations in cross-border electricity accounting,
or handling of the balance between new and retired resources;
1338
Fig. 3. (a) Annual electricity generation. (b) Electricity generating capacity
by fuel. Data are tabulated in Tables VIII and IX (see Appendix) with lines for
the bolded data and open circles for the other sources.
3) changing methodologies in source reporting. Those with
interests in pursuing these variations can find further details in
the primary sources.
We also note that reporting of solar electricity and capacity
can be composed of contributions from both PV and CSP,
depending on the source. Data available from IEA [10] show
that the magnitude of electricity generated from CSP exceeded
that from PV in the period from 1990 to 1999. Since that time,
the rapid growth in PV has made PV the dominant contributor
to solar-generated electricity. Using that same data source, we
find that PV was ∼98% of the solar total reported for 2018.
Tables VIII and IX indicate whether solar data are a combination
of these technologies or PV only. These tables also indicate our
assessment of which data are Wdc or Wac . However, we note
that there may be inconsistencies in the documentation of dc and
ac PV ratings and that some sources may include a mixture of
data.
IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 11, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2021
V. CONCLUSION
2020 was a watershed year globally for many reasons. In the
midst of the global disruption associated with the pandemic, new
installation of renewable energy electricity generating capacity
continued to represent a majority of expansion, and electricity
generated from PV globally now exceeds 3%. This reflects large
variations in the use of the solar resource and PV technology
around the globe, suggesting both the challenge and the oppor-
tunity ahead. The continued growth of both wind and PV point
to a future where synergies between these two technologies,
with growing impact of storage, can lead the way to a clean,
sustainable energy system as well as increased electrification
and efficiency across all energy sectors. The rapid rate of change
continues.
The broad PV research and development community has
played a significant role in the trajectory of renewable energy and
particularly PV represented in Figs. 1–3. This progress has been
driven by a combination of decreased costs, increased perfor-
mance, and increased reliability. These advances have enabled a
growing global industry and supply chain to both respond to and
drive increasing demand. Sustaining future growth will require
continued progress in all these areas as we continue to track
progress in renewable energy as a whole, PV as a key technology,
and the rate of change that will determine our future.
APPENDIX
This appendix describes the sources of the data reported in
Figs. 1–3.
The Statistical Review of World Energy is compiled and pub-
lished by BP and publicly released in the summer of each year. Its
history goes back to 1952, initially called the Statistical Review
of the World Oil Industry. The name was changed in 1981
to its present title, with a corresponding expansion to provide
information on fuels other than oil [8]. The report provides tables
summarizing global data in ten major categories (coal, electric-
ity, hydroelectricity, key minerals, natural gas, nuclear energy,
oil, primary energy, renewable energy, and CO2 emissions). BP
makes available the full report edition for download, as well as
PowerPoint slides and Excel spreadsheets of the source data.
The EIA is a U.S. government agency located within the
Department of Energy. It was officially created in 1977 as the
primary federal government authority on energy statistics and
analysis. EIA information is disseminated in a variety of ways,
including reports, web products, press releases, data browsers,
and maps. Reports are issued on varying time scales; EIA is
generally the last to present data for each year. While EIA has,
arguably, the most comprehensive data set, it is also the least
timely in tracking global data. Both U.S. and international data
sets are available, and many are available in Excel spreadsheet
form for download.
The IEA was created in 1974 as an international forum for
energy cooperation. Today it has 30 member countries and
eight association countries. IEA provides a wide range of data
products. Their time series goes back to 1971 and reflects input
from over 150 countries. Data can be charted real time in various
ways and chart data are available for download in Excel format.
HAEGEL AND KURTZ: GLOBAL PROGRESS TOWARD RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY: TRACKING THE ROLE OF SOLAR 1339

TABLE I
GLOBAL ELECTRICITY GENERATION BY TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY (TWH FOR INDICATED YEAR)

Source data can be found at:

[Online]. Available: http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview
[Online]. Available: https://www.eia.gov/international/data/world/electricity/electricity-generation
[Online]. Available: https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/facts-and-figures/reactor-database.aspx
[Online]. Available: https://www.ren21.net/reports/global-status-report/

Data can be sorted by category (e.g., supply, consumption),
indicator (e.g., fuel type) and country or region (e.g., world,
Europe, France).
The IRENA was officially founded in 2009 and has over
180 countries engaged in its activities. It is an international
organization designed to assist countries in their transition to a
sustainable energy future. IRENA provides a range of products,
including renewable energy capacity statistics. They produce
periodic publications and have their complete capacity data set
from 2000 onward available for download.
The WNA is an international organization representing the
global nuclear industry and composed of members from nuclear
utilities, reactor vendors, engineering firms, and a range of
companies involved in the nuclear supply chain. The WNA
tracks year to year nuclear electricity production and nuclear
generating capacity in their World Nuclear Performance Report
[11].
REN 21 (Renewables Now) was founded in 2004 and is an
international network with a focus on renewable energy policy.
They “collect, consolidate and synthesize” data on renewable
energy. REN 21 publishes a yearly report, the Renewables
Global Status Report (GSR). The GSR is a crowd sourced report,
covering market and policy trends, and released midyear. The
full report and an associated data pack are available on the REN
21 site for download.
The data obtained from the above organizations and presented
in Figs. 1–3 are tabulated in Tables I–IX. The selection of data
for Tables III–VII has little effect on the creation of Fig. 2(a) and
(b) but can have a greater effect on the appearance of Fig. 2(c).
While we were forced to mix data from different sources to
create Fig. 2, we attempted to be consistent from year to year
in our methodology so that the trends would be clear. The
electricity data in Fig. 2(a) and Tables III–VII were taken from
BP except the biomass and geothermal data, which were taken
1340 IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 11, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2021

TABLE II
GLOBAL ELECTRICITY GENERATION CAPACITY BY TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY (GW)

Source data can be found at:

[Online]. Available: https://www.eia.gov/international/data/world/electricity/electricity-capacity
[Online]. Available: https://world-nuclear.org/our-association/publications/global-trends-reports/world-nuclear-performance-report.aspx
[Online]. Available: https://www.ren21.net/reports/global-status-report/

TABLE III
GLOBAL 2016 DATA SUMMARY FOR CREATING PIE CHARTS IN FIG. 2

∗
Biomass and Geothermal TABLE IV
GLOBAL 2017 DATA SUMMARY FOR CREATING PIE CHARTS IN FIG. 2

∗
Biomass and Geotherm

TABLE V
GLOBAL 2018 DATA SUMMARY FOR CREATING PIE CHARTS IN FIG. 2

∗
Biomass and Geothermal
HAEGEL AND KURTZ: GLOBAL PROGRESS TOWARD RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY: TRACKING THE ROLE OF SOLAR 1341

TABLE VI
GLOBAL 2019 DATA SUMMARY FOR CREATING PIE CHARTS IN FIG. 2

∗
Biomass and Geothermal

TABLE VII
GLOBAL 2020 DATA SUMMARY FOR CREATING PIE CHARTS IN FIG. 2

∗
Biomass and Geothermal

TABLE VIII
GLOBAL ELECTRICITY GENERATION BY FUEL (TWH FOR INDICATED YEAR) TOTAL, NUCLEAR, AND HYDRO ARE TABULATED IN TABLE I

Source data can be found at:

[Online]. Available: http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview
[Online]. Available: https://www.eia.gov/international/data/world/electricity/electricity-generation
[Online]. Available: https://www.ren21.net/reports/global-status-report/
[Online]. Available: https://public.tableau.com/views/IRENARETimeSeries/Charts?:embed=y&:showVizHome=no&publish=yes&:toolbar=no
[Online]. Available: https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tables?country=WORLD&energy=Electricity&year=2018

from REN21. The capacity data in Fig. 2(b) and Table II used data were taken from EIA for the earlier years and estimated for
WNA data for nuclear, BP data for wind and solar and REN21 the later years by noting the REN21 assessment of the fraction
data for hydro, biomass, and geothermal. The fossil capacity of capacity additions that could be related to fossil.
1342
TABLE IX
GLOBAL ELECTRICITY-GENERATING CAPACITY BY TECHNOLOGY (GW). TOTAL, NUCLEAR AND HYDRO ARE TABULATED IN TABLE II
Source data can be found at:
[Online]. Available: https://www.eia.gov/international/data/world/electricity/electricity-capacity
[Online]. Available: http://www.bp.com/statisticalreview
[Online]. Available: https://www.ren21.net/reports/global-status-report/
[Online]. Available: https://iea-pvps.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/IEA_PVPS_Trends_Report_2020-1.pdf
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge helpful discussions
and collaborative efforts in recent years with Ron Sinton, Robert
Margolis, and David Feldman. The views expressed in the article
do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S.
Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher,
by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the
U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable,
worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form
of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government
purposes.
REFERENCES
[1] “Statistical review of world energy,” BP, 2020. [Online]. Available:
https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-
review-of-world-energy.html
IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 11, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2021
[2] “BP energy economics,” [Online]. Available: https://www.bp.com/en/
global/corporate/energy-economics.html
[3] “U.S. energy information administration homepage,” [Online]. Available:
https://www.eia.gov
[4] “World nuclear association homepage,” [Online]. Available: https://world-
nuclear.org/
[5] “International energy agency homepage,” [Online]. Available: https://
www.iea.org/
[6] “IRENA homepage,” [Online]. Available: https://www.irena.org/
[7] “REN21 homepage,” [Online]. Available: https://www.ren21.net/
[8] “60 years BP statistical review of world energy,” 2011. [Online]. Available:
https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/
pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-statistical-review-of-
world-energy-60-anniversary.pdf
[9] “EIA electricity generation data,” [Online]. Available: https://www.eia.
gov/international/data/world/electricity/electricity-generation
[10] “iea Electricity data,” [Online]. Available: https://www.iea.org/data-and-
statistics/data-tables?country=WORLD&energy=Electricity&year=2018
[11] “World nuclear performance report,” World Nuclear Association. 2020.
[Online]. Available: https://www.world-nuclear.org/our-association/
publications/global-trends-reports/world-nuclear-performance-
report.aspx