World to Add Less Clean Energy Capacity in 2026 for First Time in Five Years, IRENA Chief Says
The world will add less clean energy capacity in 2026 for the first time in five years due to inadequate transmission networks and trade barriers, Francesco La Camera, Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), told Reuters on Tuesday, October 27, on the sidelines of the Singapore International Energy Week conference. He declined to provide a numerical forecast for this year's growth in additions.
Growth in solar and wind capacity had been accelerating every year since 2021, when the coronavirus pandemic disrupted global supply chains. Clean power installations including hydropower surged a record 692 gigawatts, or 15.5 percent, in 2025 to 5,149 GW, representing half the world's power capacity. La Camera said the main cause of the lack of a new record this year is the mismatch between generation capacity and the capacity to distribute and transmit electricity. He noted a slowdown in renewables deployment in China due to curtailment, the rejection of clean power when a grid hits its limits: China, the world's biggest renewable energy producer, turned away enough clean energy in the first half of 2026 to power Mexico for a year, while networks in countries such as Australia and Japan also failed to keep pace with the buildout.
'The amount of the (capacity) increase in the other parts of the world this year, I don't think it will offset the slowing down in China,' La Camera said. Renewable additions are crucial to reducing global emissions, and the United Nations said in a report last week that 'urgent and stringent' emission cuts were required to slow global warming.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 农田中的风力发电机与太阳能电池板（资料图）。Mat Fascione 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Wind turbines and solar panels on farmland (file photo). Photo by Mat Fascione, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
