This technical paper presents a quantification of SIDS’ renewable energy targets, both in their national energy plans and in their NDCs.

The technical paper on Critical Materials for the Energy Transition emphasises that an accelerated energy transition requires a growing supply of critical materials, with Chapter 7 of the IRENA’s World Energy Transition Outlook 2022 further elaborating on these materials. IRENA continues to publish technical papers on groups of critical materials: the first one focuses on lithium and this second paper focuses on rare earth elements.

Marginal pricing wholesale power markets could produce significant barriers for the energy transition, and on their own do not appear to be appropriate organisational structures for renewables-based power systems.

This paper discusses the global lithium industry structure and major players while reflecting on current costs changes and their further implications, the role of the governments could play to de-risk lithium supply and the opportunities innovation can play in reducing demand growth.

This paper will assess how the growth of renewables will put critical materials at the centre of the energy transformation, with the objective of highlighting the criticalities related to the sector and of identifying how technological developments and innovation can positively reduce geopolitical risks.

This paper explores the status and potential of carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and their roles alongside renewables in the deep decarbonisation of energy systems.

This paper analyses the strategies of seven international oil companies (IOCs) in the context of energy transition.

This paper presents a brief overview of technology revolutions and how they interact with financial markets.

Well-crafted deployment, integrating and enabling policies could create millions of new jobs. This report outlines the evolving global and regional distribution of energy employment.

The energy sector lacks a standard definition of subsidies. This paper contributes to research on how subsidies are calculated – for fossil-fuels, renewables and the sector as a whole.

This report offers detailed estimates of the biomass resource potential in Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda. With conversion to advanced liquid biofuels, sustainable biomass feedstock could potentially meet or exceed the five countries’ combined fuel needs for transport in 2050, according IRENA estimates.

IRENA has analysed climate pledges under the Paris Agreement in relation to national energy plans and actual deployment trends. In many cases, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) have not kept up with recent, rapid growth in renewables.

This handbook outlines the best practices to develop and implement Quality Infrastructure for solar PV and, based on case studies, offers quantified cost-benefit analysis for QI implementation at different stages of PV plant development. The data and analysis provides guidance for establishing proper QI mechanisms, showcased through successful experiences with utility-scale, distributed-generation and off-grid PV development in 11 countries. 

This collection of country profiles takes stock of the latest developments in renewables at a country level around Africa.

This working paper outlines the current state of knowledge that will serve as a basis for the Scenarios and Strategies for Africa project. The goal is to prepare in-depth analysis and use models and scenarios to support and feed into national renewables readiness assessments.

The working paper makes a series of recommendations, in­cluding the development of clear and stable policy frameworks that enable the private sector to invest with confidence.

Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review presents the status of renewable energy employment, both by technology and in selected countries, over the past year. In this third edition, IRENA estimates that renewable energy employed 8.1 million people around the world in 2015 (excluding large hydropower). This is a 5% increase from the number reported the previous year. In addition, IRENA conducted a second global estimate of large hydropower employment, showing approximately 1.3 million direct jobs in the sector.

This publication presents a structured methodology that countries can use to assess their capacity to produce renewable energy statistics.

Increasing the share of renewable power from variable sources, namely solar and wind energy, requires technological developments to be accompanied by well-designed regulations for grid management and operation.

This brief quantifies air pollution and climate change externalities related to fossil fuels, along with the extent these can be reduced with higher uptake of renewables.

This report is the first-ever projection of PV panel waste volumes to 2050. It highlights that recycling or repurposing solar PV panels at the end of their roughly 30-year lifetime can unlock an estimated stock of 78 million tonnes of raw materials and other valuable components globally by 2050.

Increasing economies of scale, more competitive supply chains and further technological improvements will continue reducing the costs of solar and wind power. The same factors will also boost the availability of these key renewable power sources at night and in varying weather conditions.

In October 2015, the G20 adopted the “Toolkit of Voluntary Options for Renewable Energy Deployment”. This report summarises the results for the G20, identifies action areas for G20 policy makers and proposes the next steps of a “REmap G20 process”.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) produces comprehensive renewable energy statistics on a range of topics. This publication presents IRENA’s latest statistics for renewable power generation and capacity, as well as renewable energy balances for all countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation is poised to revolutionise the electrical system in countries around the world. From around 2% in 2016, the share of global electricity generated from solar PV to grow to as much as 13% by 2030, according to this report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The solar industry’s expansion is driven primarily by cost reductions, with the report anticipating further cost declines by up to 59% in ten years.