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Hydroelectricity
Hydropower is the largest source of renewable energy today, but that could change soon
Hydro is currently the third largest source of power generation worldwide after coal and natural gas. In 2024, it generated around 4 500 terawatt-hours of electricity, or 14% of the global total.
More than 150 gigawatts (GW) of new hydro capacity is set to come online by the end of the decade, mostly in emerging and developing economies. As a result, electricity generation from hydropower is expected to increase by 7% between 2025 and 2030. However, its share in global electricity generation is poised to…
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Wired for water: How electrification is transforming desalination
Wired for water: how electrification is transforming desalination The water-energy nexus Pressure on water resources is increasing worldwide and can be very acute at the local level. Rising consumption across sectors combined with population growth in already water-stressed regions is intensifying water scarcity. Desalination has long been developed to supply fresh water in the most affected areas, with significant implications for the energy system: energy use ranges from under 0.1% to as much as 15% of total final consumption, depending on national reliance. However, a shift is underway from thermal desalination technologies to electricity-driven systems as…
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COP28 Tripling Renewable Capacity Pledge 2025: Update Key Findings
New Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) show limited reflection of the pledge to triple global renewable capacity by 2030 agreed at COP28 Between COP28 and the end of COP30, only about two-thirds of NDCs have been updated (128) and fewer than half of these (53) explicitly reference the global tripling goal. Even fewer (32) contain quantifiable renewable capacity ambitions for 2030. NDCs continue to under-represent current government ambitions for installed renewable capacity by 2030 The NDC 3.0 round does not fully capture countries’ 2030 renewable capacity ambitions in all submitted NDCs. Including 2030 ambitions from previous NDC cycles, total…
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Germany 2025 Executive summary
Germany is at an important inflection point in its energy transition. As one era of its energy history draws to a close, another is coming clearly into view – the move away from nuclear, coal and Russian natural gas contrasted by the transition towards renewables, low-emissions hydrogen, heat pumps and electric vehicles (EVs). While the world has been buffeted by geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges in recent years, Germany has worked hard to accelerate its clean energy transition. This report seeks to provide Germany with timely advice on how it can progress towards its energy and climate goals, including in three…
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Energy Technology Perspectives 2026
The 2026 edition of Energy Technology Perspectives is published against the backdrop of a fast-changing policy and technology landscape. Governments are working to establish secure and resilient supply chains for clean energy technologies while advancing key energy policy goals such as energy security, affordability and economic competitiveness, as well as climate and other environmental goals. In a landscape that is constantly evolving, this report aims to deliver timely insights into the status and outlook of technology deployment, manufacturing, project pipelines, investments, and trade of different energy technologies and materials. The aim is to provide useful analysis that can inform…
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Ramping up Heat Pumps in Moldova: A Roadmap Regulating the sector
Regulation plays a critical role in accelerating the adoption of heat pumps. This chapter discusses the range of regulatory tools available to Moldova, including building codes, appliance standards, restrictions on fossil fuel heating, energy labelling and heat planning or zoning measures. Building codes and standards Buildings remain a major source of emissions and energy consumption around the world. In Moldova, households are by far the country’s biggest users of energy. Upgrades to building performance through energy codes are critical for lowering energy demand per square metre, as well as improving quality of life, reducing air pollution and making energy…
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Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report, 2026
This report is published by the SDG 7 custodian agencies, the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Statistics Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO), and aims to provide the international community with a global dashboard to register progress on energy access, energy efficiency, renewable energy and international cooperation to advance SDG 7.
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Sheltering From Oil Shocks Targeted consumer support to enhance energy affordability
Many governments around the world are reacting quickly to protect consumers from increasing fuel prices. In the days following the conflict in the Middle East, the IEA has tracked announcements from around 40 countries that are deploying or considering deploying emergency measures to shelter consumers from price increases. Immediate government responses have been to implement price caps, fuel subsidies and shifts in taxation, along with price stabilisation mechanisms that can quickly set limits on consumer price increases. Previous crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2022 energy crisis, demonstrated that impacts often fall disproportionately on the poorer segments of…
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Clean Energy Technology Supply Chain Data
Challenges and potential solutions Energy security in the Age of Electricity is inextricably linked to securing the supply chains for clean energy technologies and the equipment and materials used to manufacture them. As countries continue to pursue energy transitions and to direct investments to these technologies, guided by industrial strategies, a detailed understanding of their supply chains has an essential role to play. The availability of good-quality, timely data is crucial to gaining this understanding and to identifying and addressing supply chain vulnerabilities.This report is provided as an input to the discussions taking place as part of the…
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Cost of Capital Observatory
Tracking the cost of capital for clean energy projects in emerging and developing economies The Cost of Capital Observatory is an initiative from the IEA, the World Economic Forum, ETH Zurich and Imperial College London. The aim of the Observatory is to increase transparency in the energy sector and inspire investor confidence, especially in emerging and developing countries where data on financing costs is scarcer.The Observatory is divided into three sections:A Dashboard that provides free data on the cost of capital for energy projects in emerging and developing economies, updated with 2023 and 2024 data in July and…
