Scaling Up Renewables in Europe and Central Asia | Barriers and Opportunities

Although not on track to meet climate targets, renewables for electricity production are rising globally, having reached nearly 30 percent of total electricity generation in 2022. Renewable energy - based electricity - including solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and biomass - are mature, least-cost technologies in the decarbonization pathways, providing no-regret solutions to policy makers in the short to medium terms. Non-hydro renewables make up a mix of energy sources that rose more than seven-fold in a decade, increasing the percentage of generation over the last ten years. The findings of this report informed several World Bank operations in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) including the ECA renewable energy scale-up (World Bank ECARES) multiphase programmatic approach (MPA) to enhance energy security and affordability. The program was launched in March 2024 with an initial World Bank lending envelope of US 2 billion dollars, that will aim to mobilize and enable up to US 6 billion dollars of private investment in clean energy. The report informed all of the three pillars of the program including enabling policies and institutional frameworks, investments to develop flexible electricity networks, and financing and risk mitigation instruments for clean energy investments in ECA.