IRENA Chief Warns Global Renewable Power Additions May Decline in 2026

Global additions of renewable electricity capacity are likely to decline in 2026 for the first time in five years, according to the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency, who identified electricity-grid constraints and trade barriers as major obstacles to further expansion.

Francesco La Camera, IRENA's director-general, made the assessment in remarks to Reuters on the sidelines of Singapore International Energy Week, reported on October 27. He said electricity generation projects are being built faster than transmission and distribution networks can accommodate them. He did not provide a numerical forecast for this year's global capacity additions.

The warning follows a record year for renewable power. IRENA's capacity statistics published in April show that the world installed 692 gigawatts of renewable capacity during 2025, increasing the total to 5,149 gigawatts. The annual increase was 15.5%, with solar and wind accounting for most of the expansion. Installed capacity measures the maximum potential output of generation facilities and should not be confused with the amount of electricity they actually produced.

La Camera singled out China, the largest renewable-power market, where electricity generated by new solar and wind projects can be curtailed when local grids cannot take the supply. He said expansion in other regions was unlikely to compensate for a Chinese slowdown. Australia and Japan also face challenges connecting growing renewable generation to their networks, according to the Reuters interview.

A September review from the Institute of Energy for South-East Europe cited IRENA's estimate that around 2,500 gigawatts of advanced renewable, storage and large-load projects were waiting for grid connections globally. The scale of that queue provides background for the agency chief's latest warning about transmission capacity.

The assessment does not mean the world's existing renewable fleet is shrinking, or that renewable power has stopped growing; it concerns the expected volume of new capacity installed during a single year.

Power grids, storage, planning and cross-border trade are increasingly important to integrating variable solar and wind electricity. The agency chief's remarks suggest that expanding generation equipment alone will not be sufficient to maintain record annual additions. The final 2026 figures will be needed to determine whether the predicted decline occurs.