The European Union is seen as the lead driver in the push for the use of alternative energy. It has set a target of 12.0% by 2010 for the use of renewables in their energy mix. This alternative energy source formed just 6.0% the regions energy use in 2003. Despite the low percentage, the use of renewables has increased 52.0% since 1990. This rate of growth compares with the 10.9% growth of total energy consumption. As a fuel in the energy mix for electricity generation, renewables were reported to have a share of 13.9% of total electricity consumed in the EU in 2004. The rapid adoption of wind power is attributable to local policies support its use in Denmark, Germany, and Spain. Wind power's share in the renewables mix was 11.9% in 2004. Despite the strong growth in the use of wind power, hydropower was the largest contributor (68.0%) to the EU's electricity supply. Nonetheless, large-scale hydropower has limited future scope due to the EU's geologic features. The region's focus would be on wind, biomass, solar and small-scale hydropower.

As at 2003, non-OECD Asian nations, excluding China, accounted for 26.5% of the use renewables, comprising of solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal. Renewables has a larger share in the use of CRW at 33%. The region's use of hydropower is only 7%. China is expected to lead the drive for the use of renewables in the Asia Pacific region. It's expected huge energy demand in the future, driven by economic growth, has made the securing of energy supplies a very important policy objective. Already it is registering more than half of global energy consumption growth. China's oil consumption is expected to increase from 4.3 mbd in 1990 to 10.0 mbd in 2020. Electricity demand is expected to increase five-fold from 1,416 TWh in 2002 to 7,162 TWh in 2030. Leading the drive in China's effort in the use of renewables is China Renewable Energy Scale-up Program (CRESP), developed by the Chinese government with the cooperation of the World Bank Group. This initiative has led to a grant of US$40.22 million to finance the scaling-up of renewable energy investments and to support provincial demonstration projects. China now accounts for 80% of the small hydro capacity in developing countries and has 150,000 installations of solar home systems. In its effort to tap solar energy to meet its huge electricity demand, China has installed its largest solar photovoltaic station in 2004. Costing RMB61.9 million (USD7.49 million), the largest in Asia then, this generator has a capacity of one MWp (mega-watt peak), producing one million kWh. China has set an overall target of 10% for renewables share in its energy supply by 2020. One of CRESP's objectives is to steer the development of wind power to supply 12% of the country's electricity needs of about 3,800 TWh by 2020. This is a capacity of 20 GW which would require an investment of US$40 billion for 20,000 wind turbines. These initiatives would potentially make China one of the world's largest markets of renewable energy.