The energy demand across the globe has increased in many folds due to technological advancement, rapid growth in industries and increase in household energy demand. This led the engineers and planners to think and find the means to harvest the alternative energy sources other than the fossil fuel. Solar, wind, biomass, mini hydro are some of the resources used worldwide to generate energy as per the availability of resources. This paper presents a comparative performances of various stand alone solar photovoltaic(PV), grid connected PV and hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) studied across the globe. The standalone PV system is used to supply electricity to a small habitats/hamlets or to a single household. Hybrid energy system consists of two or more energy sources for generation of power for rural electrification in off grid locations and in grid connected PV systems, excess electricity produced is injected to the grid thereby generating additional income. The research works carried out by various researchers around the globe on renewable energy sources particularly for rural electrification is discussed in this paper. Besides this the utilisation of renewable electricity for Plug-in-Electric Vehicles (PEV) studied across the globe were also discussed.