METHODOLOGICAL NOTES This 2024 GSR collection is the 19th edition of the Renewables Global Status Report(GSR), which has been produced annually since 2005 (with the exception of 2008). Readers are directed to the previous GSR editions for historical details. Most of the 2023 data on national and global capacity, output, growth and investment provided in this report are preliminary. Where necessary, information and data that are conflicting, partial or older are reconciled by using reasoned expert judgment. Endnotes provide additional details, including references, supporting information and assumptions where relevant. Each edition draws from thousands of published and unpublished references, including: official government sources; reports from international organisations and industry associations; input from the GSR community via hundreds of questionnaires submitted by country, regional and technology contributors as well as feedback from several rounds of formal and informal reviews; additional personal communications with scores of international experts; and a variety of electronic newsletters, news media and other sources. Much of the data found in the GSR is built from the ground up by the authors with the aid of these resources. This often involves extrapolation of older data, based on recent changes in key countries within a sector or based on recent growth rates and global trends. Other data, often very specific and narrow in scope, come more-or-less prepared from third parties. The GSR attempts to synthesise these data points into a collective whole for the focus year. The GSR endeavours to provide the best data available in each successive edition; as such, data should not be compared with previous versions of this report to ascertain year-by-year changes. Note on Establishing Renewable Energy Shares of Total Final Energy Consumption (TFEC) Assumptions Related to Renewable Electricity Shares of TFEC When estimating electricity consumption from renewable sources, the GSR must make certain assumptions about how much of the estimated gross output from renewable electricity generating resources actually reaches energy consumers, as part of total final energy consumption. The International Energy Agency's (IEA) World Energy Statistics and Balances reports electricity output by individual technology. However, it does not report electricity consumption by technology – only total consumption of electricity. The difference between gross output and final consumption is determined by: The energy industry's own-use, including electricity used for internal operations at power plants. This includes the power consumption of various internal loads, such as fans, pumps and pollution controls at thermal plants, and other uses such as electricity use in coal mining and fossil fuel refining. Transmission and distribution losses that occur as electricity finds its way to consumers. Industry's own-use. The common method is to assume that the proportion of consumption by technology is equal to the proportion of output by technology. This is problematic because logic dictates that industry's own-use cannot be proportionally the same for every generating technology. Further, industry's own-use must be somewhat lower for some renewable generating technologies (particularly non-thermal renewables such as hydropower, solar PV and wind power) than is the case for fossil fuel and nuclear power technologies. Such thermal power plants consume significant amounts of electricity to meet their own internal energy requirements (see above). Therefore, the GSR has opted to apply differentiated “industry own-use” by generating technology. This differentiation is based on explicit technology-specific own-use (such as pumping at hydropower facilities) as well as on the apportioning of various categories of own-use by technology as deemed appropriate. For example, industry own-use of electricity at coal mines and oil refineries is attributed to fossil fuel generation. Differentiated own-uses by technology, combined with global average losses, are as follows: solar PV, ocean energy and wind power (7.7%); hydropower (8.5%); concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) (13.71%); and bio-power (14.7%). For comparison, the undifferentiated (universal) combined losses and industry own-use would be 16% of gross generation. Estimated technology-specific industry own-use of electricity from renewable sources is based on data for 2020 from IEA, World Energy Balances, 2022 edition. Transmission and distribution losses. Such losses may differ (on average) by generating technology. For example, hydropower plants often are located far from load centres, incurring higher-than-average transmission losses, whereas some solar PV generation may occur near to (or at) the point of consumption, incurring little (or zero) transmission losses. However, specific information by technology on a global scale is not available. Therefore, the GSR has opted to apply a global average for transmission and distribution losses. Global average electricity losses are based on data for 2021 from IEA, World Energy Balances, 2023 edition. Notes on Renewable Energy in Total Final Energy Consumption, by Demand Sectors GSR 2024 presents an illustration of the share of renewable energy in total final energy consumption by sector in 2021. The share of TFEC in each sector is provided as follows: Buildings (33%), Industry (34%), Transport (30%) and Agriculture (2%). The calculation of these shares represents TFEC in these sectors and excludes “final consumption not elsewhere specified” and “non-energy use” as defined by the IEA's World Energy Statistics and Balances 2022 Database documentation. Other Notes Editorial content of this report closed by 27 March 2024 for TFEC in demand data, and by 1 March 2024 or earlier for other content. Growth rates in the GSR are calculated as compound annual growth rates (CAGR) rather than as an average of annual growth rates. All exchange rates in this report are as of 31 December 2023 and are calculated using the OANDA currency converter. Corporate domicile, where noted, is determined by the location of headquarters.