This draft strategic framework for capacity building initiatives by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) identifies key requirements and conditions to encourage the adoption and scale-up of renewable energy.

This report explores potential for urban communities to scale-up renewables by 2030, based on estimated energy use 3,649 cities around the world. By highlighting the best practices, it examines the policies and technologies by which cities can bring about a renewable energy future.

Irrigation improves yields, reduces vulnerability to changing rainfall patterns, and enables multiple cropping practices. This can stimulate socio-economic development in the agriculture sector helping the fight against poverty.

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

This Renewables Readiness Assessment from IRENA highlights the challenges and provides 11 recommendations to harness the potential of renewable energy sources in Belarus.

This report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) provides the first quantification of the macroeconomic impact of doubling the global share of renewables in the energy mix by 2030.

Universal electricity access – one of the targets of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative for 2030 – will remain unachievable unless countries adopt a market-based approach to off-grid renewable energy deployment. This report highlights key findings and recommendations of the Second International Off-grid Renewable Energy Conference (IOREC 2014), organised by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in partnership with off-grid and regional agencies.

Tourism is an important economic driver for island economies. Energy supply, vital for the tourism industry, is still dominated by oil products which increases islands’ vulnerability to the environmental impact of fossil-fuel use, as well as to oil price volatility, which makes it difficult for the industry to remain competitive

This IRENA/IEA-ETSAP Technology Brief provides technical background, analyses the potential and barriers for market growth, and offers insights for policy makers on tSolar thermal systems (STS) .

This report analyses the regional energy landscape, potential and costs, policy and investment needs, and expected socio-economic impact from a shift to renewables.

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 second edition, IRENA estimates that renewable energy employed 7.7 million people, directly or indirectly, around the world in 2014 (excluding large hydropower).

In two international workshops in Bonn (June 2010) and Madrid (November 2010) and in meetings during the first CEM in Washington (July 2010) and the second CEM in Abu Dhabi (April 2011) the Multilateral Working Group made substantial progress in the two initial fields of action: (I) the Development of a Global Solar and Wind Atlas; and (II) the Development of a Long-term Strategy on Joint Capacity Building.

This report presents the status of renewable energy employment, both by technology and in selected countries, over the past year. In this fourth edition, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) finds that renewable energy employed 9.8 million people around the world in 2016 – a 1.1% increase over 2015.

Renewable energy technologies can address trade-offs between water, energy and food, bringing substantial benefits in all three key sectors. This report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) looks at how adopting renewables can ease trade-offs by providing less resource-intensive energy services compared to conventional energy technologies.

A Path to Prosperity: Renewable Energy for Islands presents a compilation of case studies from small island developing states (SIDS) and development partners.

Cyprus, a European Union member state since 2004, is at the crossroads of determining how its energy sector, and particularly the power sector, should develop in the coming decades. The island country currently depends on imported oil to meet most of its growing energy needs. At the same time, cost reductions on renewable energy technologies, coupled with abundant renewable energy resources, provide the chance to reduce dependency on fossil fuels while complying with EU renewable energy targets for 2020 and fulfilling the country’s own targets for 2030.

A Path to Prosperity: Renewable energy for islands was developed in support of the Renewable Energy Forum, a one-day forum preceding the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), held in Apia, Samoa, on 1-4 September 2014. The booklet is a collection of case studies submitted by SIDS and development partners to complement Forum discussions.

This summary provided key insights on cost trends for renewable power generation ahead of a ground-breaking series of comprehensive cost studies by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

IRENA’s working paper, Doubling the Global Share of Renewable Energy: A Roadmap to 2030, outlines the proposed process, and progress to date, of REMAP 2030 – IRENA’s global roadmap for policies and actions to double the share of renewable energy by 2030.

This REmap study, prepared in co-operation with the European Commission,  identifies cost-effective renewable energy options for all EU Member States, spanning a wide range of sectors and technologies.

Over 5.7 million people are employed directly or indirectly in renewable energy – a figure that could triple by 2030 with the scale-up needed to ensure global energy sustainability. As policy makers look beyond energy security and environmental aspects, the comprehensive Renewable Energy and Jobs report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) examines wider socio-economic benefits, and specifically job creation.

These local case studies were prepared by IRENA in cooperation with the organisations described. They intend to explore the employment dimension of renewable energy development and deployment in rural areas in the developing world. 

A practical guide for decision-makers and project developers on the available energy storage solutions and their successful applications in the context of islands communities. The report also includes various best practice cases and different scenarios and strategies. It is developed as part of the IRENA Renewables in Islands Initiative (IRII).

Germany’s Energiewende (“energy transition”) has made the country a world leader in renewable energy development

The Republic of Moldova has vast renewable energy potential that remains largely untapped. Greater use of renewables would reduce costly fuel imports and boost the country’s economic development.