According to BP's 2018 edition of its Statistical Review of World Energy, renewable energy has not been able to fill the void created by retiring nuclear plants despite its large growth in 2017. As a result, the share of non-carbon power generation has fallen slightly over the past 20 years. The data is further evidence that energy sources such as wind and solar cannot replace coal and other fossil fuels and will not lead to significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions despite decades of subsidies. Despite non-hydroelectric renewable generation increasing by 17 percent, wind and solar accounted for only six percent of total electricity globally.
Public and private entities spent $1.1 trillion on solar and over $900 billion on wind between 2007 and 2016. Global investment in these renewable sources was about $300 billion per year between 2010 and 2016. The $2 trillion in solar and wind investment during the past 10 years represents an amount similar to the global investment in nuclear power over the past 54 years, which totals about $1.8 trillion.
Source: Forbes