The global energy system’s current structure has severe environmental consequences that necessitate an urgent transformation toward more sustainable alternatives. Besides many available mitigation actions, such as enhancing energy efficiency, deploying nuclear energy, switching fuels and adopting carbon capture technologies, renewable energy (RE) has been the most widely applied one in many countries, especially for the power sector. The average country-level share of non-hydroelectric renewable energy (NhRE) in power generation rose sixfold over the last two decades, from less than 1% in 2000 to roughly 6% in 2018. Despite its wide application, significant heterogeneity exists in the RE transition across countries.