"The world's overall energy consumption grew by 4.3% in 2004,"said BP chief economist Peter Davies.

"In volume terms, this is the largest-ever annual increase in global primary energy consumption and is the highest percentage growth since 1984."

The report contains information on energy production and consumption through to the end of 2004 and primarily deals with market transactions, acknowledging that many smaller renewable energy sources were excluded due to their non-commercial nature.

"Such non-commercial energy, typically in the form of firewood, charcoal, crop residues and animal waste, is especially important in emerging economies and accounts for the vast majority of the world's renewable energy use," the report said.

"Since it is very difficult to collect data for this sort of energy, it is typically not accounted for in conventional energy statistics."

According to the report, commercial renewable energy accounted for an estimated 2.5% of commercial primary energy worldwide in 2004. Hydroelectric power grew by 5%, while nuclear power saw a 4.4% increase.

BP itself saw a 30% increase in sales of its solar branch, BP Solar, bringing in revenue of $US400 million ($A538 million) and making a profit for the first time. It has announced that it will double its solar power capacity to 200MW by 2006, but the report clearly outlines that renewable sources have an uphill battle against their fossil fuel counterparts.

"Non-hydro renewable energy is estimated to account for only around 11% of current world primary energy consumption, reflecting the fact that the economics of renewable energy are generally unfavourable compared to the economics of conventional technologies utilising fossil fuels," it said.