Top 100 Countries by Share of Renewable Energy in Power Generation, 2025
Renewable electricity share in 2025: why “power generation” is a different metric
This ranking tracks the share of electricity generated from renewable sources (hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy and other renewables) as a percentage of a country’s total electricity generation. It is widely cited — and widely misunderstood — because many readers silently substitute a different idea: renewables as a share of total energy consumption (which also includes transport fuels and heat). Those two indicators answer different questions and often move at very different speeds.
Electricity generation share is about what power plants produce inside the country’s grid in a given year. Total energy consumption share is broader: it includes gasoline and diesel, industrial heat, household heating, and other non-electric uses. A country can rank very high in renewable electricity while still relying heavily on fossil fuels for transport and heat.
The 2025 snapshot below uses the latest harmonised, full-year country data currently available (2024). In practice, these series are released with a lag because they consolidate national statistics and multi-source reporting. The purpose here is comparability: the same definitions and accounting rules across countries.
Table 1 — Top 10 countries by renewables’ share of electricity generation (latest full-year data)
| Rank | Country | Renewables share (of generation, %) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iceland | 100.0 |
| 2 | Norway | 98.4 |
| 3 | Uruguay | 94.6 |
| 4 | Costa Rica | 94.0 |
| 5 | El Salvador | 92.5 |
| 6 | Kenya | 91.9 |
| 7 | Luxembourg | 90.4 |
| 8 | Tajikistan | 89.3 |
| 9 | Denmark | 88.0 |
| 10 | Brazil | 87.7 |
Interpretation hint: a very high renewable share can come from different systems — hydro-dominant grids (large reservoirs and rivers), wind-dominant grids (high penetration plus flexible balancing), or geothermal-dominant grids (rare, but extremely stable).
Bar chart: Top 10 countries by renewables’ share of electricity generation (%, latest full-year data available at time of publication). Values are rounded to one decimal for readability.
What drives the leaderboard: hydro dominance vs wind and solar penetration
The Top 20 list is overwhelmingly shaped by one structural fact: hydropower can deliver both high volumes and very high system shares when a country has suitable geography, legacy dam infrastructure, and a grid designed around seasonal water management. In the current Top 20, most leaders are still hydro-led systems. That does not mean wind and solar are unimportant — it means they often lift countries from the middle of the distribution to the upper half, while hydro is what most commonly produces “near-total” renewable generation.
Useful mental split: countries can reach a high renewable share through (1) dispatchable renewables (hydro and geothermal), (2) variable renewables (wind and solar) supported by flexibility (interconnectors, storage, demand response, gas backup), or (3) a hybrid where hydro acts as the balancing backbone while wind/solar expand rapidly.
Chart 1 — Top 20 countries by renewables’ share of electricity generation
Bar chart: Top 20 renewables share of electricity generation (%). Rounding is to one decimal.
Chart 2 — Technology composition of renewables among the Top 10
A country can have the same total renewable share for very different reasons. The stacked view below decomposes the renewable share into hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy, and other renewables (e.g., geothermal). Each bar sums to the country’s total renewables share.
Stacked bar chart: component shares (as % of total electricity generation). Small differences vs table values can appear due to rounding.
Table 2 — Top 100 countries by renewables’ share of electricity generation (2025 snapshot)
The table provides the full Top 100 ranking using the latest harmonised full-year data available (2024, released/updated in 2025). This is a ranking of shares, not total production volumes.
| Rank | Country | Renewables share (of generation, %) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iceland | 100.0 |
| 2 | Norway | 98.4 |
| 3 | Uruguay | 94.6 |
| 4 | Costa Rica | 94.0 |
| 5 | El Salvador | 92.5 |
| 6 | Kenya | 91.9 |
| 7 | Luxembourg | 90.4 |
| 8 | Tajikistan | 89.3 |
| 9 | Denmark | 88.0 |
| 10 | Brazil | 87.7 |
| 11 | Austria | 86.7 |
| 12 | Portugal | 85.2 |
| 13 | New Zealand | 85.1 |
| 14 | Kyrgyzstan | 84.0 |
| 15 | Latvia | 82.7 |
| 16 | Colombia | 82.3 |
| 17 | Sweden | 82.2 |
| 18 | Switzerland | 79.7 |
| 19 | Ecuador | 76.9 |
| 20 | Honduras | 76.6 |
| 21 | Nepal | 75.8 |
| 22 | Albania | 75.4 |
| 23 | Canada | 65.5 |
| 24 | Paraguay | 64.9 |
| 25 | Finland | 64.3 |
| 26 | Slovenia | 63.0 |
| 27 | Germany | 57.4 |
| 28 | Spain | 56.7 |
| 29 | Greece | 56.1 |
| 30 | United Kingdom | 54.7 |
| 31 | Italy | 54.2 |
| 32 | Lithuania | 53.5 |
| 33 | Romania | 52.4 |
| 34 | Ireland | 51.8 |
| 35 | Chile | 49.4 |
| 36 | Netherlands | 47.6 |
| 37 | Turkey | 45.6 |
| 38 | Belgium | 45.5 |
| 39 | Poland | 44.8 |
| 40 | Croatia | 44.4 |
| 41 | Peru | 44.4 |
| 42 | Hungary | 43.1 |
| 43 | Pakistan | 41.7 |
| 44 | Czechia | 41.0 |
| 45 | Bulgaria | 40.7 |
| 46 | Australia | 40.7 |
| 47 | China | 33.6 |
| 48 | Argentina | 32.7 |
| 49 | France | 26.2 |
| 50 | United States | 24.1 |
| 51 | Japan | 23.2 |
| 52 | Mexico | 21.9 |
| 53 | Indonesia | 19.3 |
| 54 | India | 19.8 |
| 55 | Russia | 18.1 |
| 56 | South Korea | 9.6 |
| 57 | Saudi Arabia | 2.2 |
| 58 | Iran | 6.2 |
| 59 | Qatar | 0.0 |
| 60 | Kuwait | 0.1 |
| 61 | Oman | 0.2 |
| 62 | United Arab Emirates | 4.3 |
| 63 | Israel | 10.3 |
| 64 | Singapore | 1.2 |
| 65 | Egypt | 10.2 |
| 66 | South Africa | 14.3 |
| 67 | Ukraine | 14.1 |
| 68 | Morocco | 20.6 |
| 69 | Algeria | 0.6 |
| 70 | Nigeria | 18.8 |
| 71 | Ethiopia | 67.5 |
| 72 | Uganda | 84.9 |
| 73 | Tanzania | 66.0 |
| 74 | Zambia | 80.2 |
| 75 | Zimbabwe | 62.3 |
| 76 | Namibia | 44.5 |
| 77 | Botswana | 4.7 |
| 78 | Ghana | 37.4 |
| 79 | Senegal | 27.0 |
| 80 | Cameroon | 70.3 |
| 81 | Gabon | 65.4 |
| 82 | Angola | 66.0 |
| 83 | Mozambique | 94.8 |
| 84 | DR Congo | 99.2 |
| 85 | Mali | 38.8 |
| 86 | Niger | 21.6 |
| 87 | Burkina Faso | 11.5 |
| 88 | Benin | 6.6 |
| 89 | Togo | 47.7 |
| 90 | Cote d'Ivoire | 21.2 |
| 91 | Guinea | 78.8 |
| 92 | Liberia | 67.0 |
| 93 | Sierra Leone | 63.1 |
| 94 | Guinea-Bissau | 6.8 |
| 95 | Gambia | 2.1 |
| 96 | Mauritania | 21.3 |
| 97 | Cabo Verde | 24.8 |
| 98 | Sao Tome and Principe | 5.2 |
| 99 | Seychelles | 1.6 |
| 100 | Maldives | 0.0 |
High share vs high volume: what this ranking means (and what it does not)
A Top-10 position in renewable electricity share is a strong signal of how the domestic power system is structured — but it is not, by itself, a measure of how much renewable electricity a country contributes to the global total. Shares answer “what fraction of national generation is renewable.” Volumes answer “how many terawatt-hours does the country generate in total, and how much of that is renewable.” The two can point in different directions.
Iceland generates almost all of its electricity from renewables (≈ 100.0%) but its total generation is small (≈ 19.6 TWh).
Norway combines a near-total renewable share (≈ 98.4%) with a larger system scale (≈ 156 TWh).
China sits closer to the global middle by share (≈ 33.6%) but is the largest generator by volume (≈ 10073 TWh), so small percentage changes translate into very large absolute shifts.
Note: all examples use the same “share of electricity generation” definition. Nuclear power is not counted as renewable in this metric.
Transition cases: leaders by share are not always leaders by technology momentum
Many top-ranked countries reached high shares through hydro and geothermal — mature, dispatchable renewables that can stabilize the grid. The most visible “transition story” in recent years, however, is the rapid build-out of wind and solar in larger systems. For example, Germany’s renewables share is high (≈ 57.4%) with substantial contributions from wind (≈ 28.0%) and solar (≈ 14.9%) as shares of total generation — a different pathway from hydro-dominant leaders.
Similarly, Denmark’s high ranking is powered mainly by wind (≈ 57.9%) rather than hydro, which shifts the policy emphasis toward flexibility: interconnectors, dispatchable backup, storage, and demand-side response. Kenya shows yet another pattern: a very high renewable share (≈ 91.9%) supported by a large “other renewables” component (primarily geothermal in international accounting), illustrating how rare resources can anchor a clean grid even without massive hydro reservoirs.
Policy takeaway: how to read the renewable share ranking responsibly
- Separate “electricity” from “total energy”. A country can decarbonize power faster than transport and heat; the ranking only covers the power sector.
- Check the backbone technology. Hydro/geothermal-heavy grids face different constraints (water variability, site limits) than wind/solar-heavy grids (balancing and networks).
- Don’t confuse share with scale. A move from 30% to 35% in a very large system can add more renewable electricity than a full transition in a small system.
- Look for bottlenecks. High renewable share can hide stress points: seasonal hydro swings, grid congestion, curtailment, and long lead times for transmission.
FAQ
Why are some high-income countries relatively low in this ranking?
Wealth does not automatically translate into a high renewables share. Some high-income systems rely heavily on nuclear (which is low-carbon but not renewable), or they have limited domestic hydro resources and slower permitting for new wind and solar. Others may import electricity or fuel to stabilize the system, which can change how domestic generation shares look year to year.
Does “renewables share of generation” tell me how green electricity consumption is?
Not directly. The metric is based on electricity generated within the country. If a country imports or exports large amounts of power, the renewable share of consumption can differ from the renewable share of generation. The ranking intentionally sticks to generation to keep definitions consistent across countries.
Why do hydro-heavy countries dominate the very top?
Hydropower is a dispatchable renewable that can run for long hours and deliver large annual volumes. In countries with strong river basins and existing infrastructure, hydro can supply most electricity without the balancing challenges that arise when wind and solar become the majority. That said, hydro output can be sensitive to drought and multi-year water variability.
Is a higher renewables share always better?
A higher share generally means lower fossil generation in the power sector, but system quality also matters: affordability, reliability, seasonal resilience, and the ability to electrify transport and heat without shifting emissions elsewhere. The best interpretation is to treat the ranking as a structural snapshot, then ask follow-up questions about volumes, grid flexibility, and long-run investment.
Primary data sources and technical notes
-
Ember — Yearly Electricity Data (country generation mix, renewables shares; compiled from multi-source and national statistics).
https://ember-energy.org/data/yearly-electricity-data/ -
Our World in Data — Energy dataset (harmonised country-level energy and electricity indicators, including renewables share of electricity).
https://ourworldindata.org/energy -
OWID energy-data repository (dataset documentation and update pipeline; CSV/metadata).
https://github.com/owid/energy-data -
World Bank WDI indicator definition for renewable electricity output share (concept and formula).
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.RNEW.ZS -
IEA — Renewables 2025 (global renewable electricity outlook and context).
https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2025/renewable-electricity -
IEA — Energy Statistics Data Browser (underlying statistical framework used widely in cross-country energy reporting).
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tools/energy-statistics-data-browser
Scope note: the ranking reflects the latest full-year country data available at the time of publication (2024, updated in 2025) and is intended for comparative analysis.
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