That's more than the generating capacity of all nuclear reactors in the United States and slightly less than Germany's installed capacity from all power sources.
The annual report released today in Europe by Paris-based REN21, a nonprofit group that promotes renewable energy, underscored how China, the world's top consumer of coal, has become a global leader in clean energy, too.
It also highlighted that while renewables now account for 28 per cent of the world's electricity-generating capacity, they still account for only a tiny share of how we heat and cool buildings and fuel our means of transportation.
"But we need attention to the heating-cooling sector and transport."
Renewable energy's share in all forms of energy consumption -- currently about 10 per cent -- will have to increase dramatically to fulfill the vision that President Barack Obama and other leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy economies endorsed last week.
To fight climate change, they called for deep cuts in heat-trapping carbon emissions and all but eliminating them by the end of the century.
The fossil fuel industry and many energy experts say that can't happen without fossil fuels, even in the electricity sector, where coal remains the top fuel.
"Renewables will grow but that doesn't mean coal is going away," said Benjamin Sporton, head of the World Coal Association.
Sporton said India is commissioning 20GW of coal-fired power generation every year. "And they have a further 118GW under construction or approved," he added.
Supporters of renewable energy say the world is already "decoupling" carbon emissions from economic growth, pointing to preliminary data from the International Energy Agency showing that carbon emissions from the energy sector didn't rise last year even though the global economy grew by 3 per cent.