The sun keeps shining on renewables.

Solar, wind, hydro and thermal power will generate more than a quarter of the world’s electricity by 2020, as cheaper manufacturing costs and better financing make renewables the planet’s largest source of new energy over the next five years, the International Energy Agency, an independent analysis organization made up of 29 member nations, predicted Friday.



“Renewables are poised to seize the crucial top spot in global power supply growth, but this is hardly time for complacency,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement. “Governments must remove the question marks over renewables if these technologies are to achieve their full potential, and put our energy system on a more secure, sustainable path.”

Renewable energy’s share of the global market is expected to exceed 26 percent by 2020 – greater than China, India and Brazil’s current energy demand combined and up from 22 percent in 2013, the agency said. Solar and wind alone will make up close to half that total growth.

Renewables may play an especially critical role in emerging economies, which traditionally have relied on heavily polluting coal plants for electricity needs. Coal still churned out 29 percent of the world’s energy in 2014, second only to oil, but as renewables’ prices have fallen – and as nations such as China and India have announced plans to begin cleaning their air by depending more on clean energy over coal – that dominance may be diminishing.



“Affordable renewables are set to dominate the emerging power systems of the world,” Birol said. “With excellent hydro, solar and wind resources, improving cost-effectiveness and policy momentum, renewables can play a critical role in supporting economic growth and energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa, meeting almost two-thirds of the region’s new demand needs over the next five years.”

In the U.S., renewables generation ticked up slightly in 2014 as the use of coal fell.