Renewable Capacity Additions
Renewable capacity additions in 2020 expanded by more than 45% from 2019, with growth in both wind and solar. China accounted for 72GW of the 86GW of incremental added capacity, as shown in these waterfall charts. Renewable capacity data from Renewable Energy Market Update 2021.
Renewable Capacity Additions by Technology and by Region in Two Waterfall Charts with bar Comparison Lines
Why Use Waterfall Charts
The waterfall chart both highlights and explains the incremental renewable capacity added in 2020 versus 2019. The bar comparison line shows both percentage and actual change. The bars explain that two technologies (wind and solar) and one region (China) account for most of the incremental added capacity. The axis breaks shrink the two total bars to allow the viewer to focus on the change bars. The red color of the 3 key segments highlight their importance.
How I Made These Renewable Capacity Additions Waterfall Charts
Here is the data I used to create the charts:
Here's how I made the top chart:
- insert 2 charts top/bottom into PowerPoint
- set chart type to waterfall and set last bar as total bar
- enter the data extracted from Renewable Energy Market Update 2021 into the Mekko Graphics Data Editor
- enter y axis title and hide other elements of y axis
- adjust internal chart margins and bar gaps
- add bar comparison line and show value and percentage change
- format bar total and bar comparison line with GW as custom suffix
- sort bars with biggest on left
- update series color to grey and segment colors for wind and solar to red
Copy the chart and paste it into the same slide. Update the data, y axis title, and segment color.
Take This Chart and Make It Your Own
Download this chart and edit it using Mekko Graphics. See more waterfall charts in our chart gallery. Here are some other charts that may be of interest:
