Photo: Kenueone from Pixabay
According to global energy think tank Ember, the world expanded its solar and wind power capacity by a record 814 GW altogether in 2025. It was 17% more than in the previous year. The report includes numbers for Turkey, which reached 25.1 GW in the photovoltaics segment and 14.8 GW of wind.
New data from Ember’s interactive tool show that the combined global installed capacity of wind and solar finished last year at 4.17 TW. It highlights the rapid expansion of the two fastest-growing sources of electricity in history, the think tank pointed out.
They expanded by a record 814 GW altogether in 2025 or 17% more than in the previous year. Photovoltaics led in new capacity with an almost four-to-one ratio. Still, wind turbines generate an average 2.3 times more power than the same solar capacity.
With 647 GW, the solar power additions were 11% above 2024. Cumulatively, the segment rallied to 2.87 TW in peak capacity.
Annual wind deployment surged 47% to 167 GW. Total capacity hit 1.3 TW at the end of December.
The global dataset accounts for 93% of solar and 92% of wind power capacity.
Renewables partly cushion gas price crunch impact
The wind and solar capacity added in 2025 alone can generate an estimated 1.05 PWh of electricity each year, which would be enough to displace more than a seventh of global gas generation or 1.8 times more than Qatar’s annual volume of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.
At current market prices, it is equivalent to annual gas import costs USD 138 billion, the update reads.
“The scale and speed of solar’s expansion is unlike anything seen before in the power sector. Along with accelerating capacity additions for wind, these technologies are on track to become the backbone of the global electricity supply. As they scale up, they will strengthen energy independence, reduce reliance on fragile fossil fuel supply chains, and help insulate consumers from price spikes in fossil fuel prices driven by geopolitical instability,” Ember’s Data Analyst Leonard Heberer said.
EU’s solar power capacity grows 18.6% year over year
In the European Union, photovoltaics expanded by 65 GW or 18.6% overall, slowing from the previous year’s 25% growth, when the increase was also 5 GW higher. The cumulative level hit 415 GW in 2025. The wind segment advanced just 6%, on par with 2024, to 247 GW.
As for the region that Balkan Green Energy News tracks, the report includes Turkey. PV capacity jumped 24.3% to 25.1 GW last year, and by another 1 GW by the end of February. Wind power achieved growth of 14.7% to 14.8 GW, while last month the level reached 15 GW.
The country hosted 286 W of solar power per capita at the end of 2025, compared to the EU’s 924 W or the global 349 W. Looking at wind power, the country had 168 W per inhabitant, the European Union was at 549 W and the world hosted 158 W per capita.
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