(October 2016) - Renewable energy resources have increasingly become mainstream energy soures worldwide, catapulted by new capacity in developing countries. Depending on the source, renewable energy has or is poised to surpass coal to become the world's largest source of electrical power capacity. The International Energy Agency (IEA) in its most recent medium-term renewable market report said that this transition occurred during 2015, while according to the latest energy outlook by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) the transition will be completed in 2016.

The IEA report shows that in 2015 renewables contributed more than half of the growth of installed power capacity globally.

New power capacity gains were driven mostly by wind and solar additions, representing 45 and 24 percent of the total renewable capacity increases, respectively.

In 2015, China accounted for as much as 41 percent of global wind power additions and about 44 percent of the total renewable power capacity increases around the world.

Better access to financing, improving cost-competitiveness of renewable technologies, energy security and environmental concerns, and growing demand for energy have factored into the transformation to different degrees depending on the country and renewable source.