According to reports by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (NEF), the global transition to clean electricity generation continued in 2018, driven by lower costs of renewable electricity generation and a sharp decrease in battery prices.
IRENA’s report titled, ‘Renewable Energy Statistics 2019,’ shows that in 2018 renewable energy accounted for almost two-thirds of new installations for electricity generation with global additions of 171 gigawatts (GW) in renewable capacity. Solar and wind energy accounted for 84 percent of this growth. Installations of non-renewable generation capacity (including nuclear) contributed 115 GW. While the growth rate of non-renewable capacity has shown no discernible trend since 2001, additions in renewable capacity have grown almost every year over the same time frame. IRENA reports that one-third of global power capacity is now based on renewable energy.