Great Report by REN21

A network for Renewable Energy was formed in 2004 as an outcome of the International Conference for Renewable Energies in Bonn, Germany (Source). REN21, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, is a global renewable energy multi-stakeholder policy network that provides international leadership for the rapid transition to renewable energy. See their global status report here. They have a nice graphic on page 28 of the report which depicts the energy mix. Read the report if you get a chance


Based on REN21's 2016 report, renewables contributed 19.2% to humans' global energy consumption and 23.7% to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015, respectively. This energy consumption is divided as follows:

• 8.9% coming from traditional biomass
• 4.2% as heat energy (modern biomass, geothermal and solar heat)
• 3.9% hydro electricity
• 2.2% is electricity from wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass.

Worldwide investments in renewable technologies was at US$286 billion in 2015, with countries like China and the United States leading the charts with heavy investment in wind, hydro, solar and biofuels. The best part of the statistics was that more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable. That's a good sign!


As per REN21, there are 3 categories under which they put renewables:

• Power: Hydro, Bio, Geothermal, Solar PV, Solar Concentrating, Wind 
• Heat: Solar hot water
• Transport: Ethanol, Biodiesel

They also talk about Ocean energy (wind, tidal).