- Renewable energy now accounts for more of the world’s electricity than coal
- It accounts for 33.8% of electricity generation compared to 33% for coal.
- Solar power is meeting 75% of the world’s electricity demand growth and is a key driver here.
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Renewable energy will become the world’s main source of electricity by 2025, finally overtaking coal in this regard, according to a new study.
CarbonBrief’s report includes facts published by a think tank called Ember. Based on Ember’s calculations in the latest World Power Review, coal-fired electricity generation fell by 0.2% last year to 33%, while renewables maintained a steady upward trajectory, narrowly overtaking coal to reach 33.8%.
Wind and solar power accounted for 99% of the growth in electricity demand last year (solar PV accounted for the lion’s share, actually 75%). Separately, the International Energy Agency said in its Global Energy Review 2026 report that “absolute increases in solar power generation in 2025 will be the largest ever observed for any power plant.”
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While there have been previous year-on-year declines in the share of fossil fuel electricity generation, usually due to economic crises or pandemics, this is the first time that the transition to clean power has reduced coal use.
Apparently, record solar power generation, up 30% year-on-year, was a key factor in renewables taking over the top spot from coal. Note that this is only coal-fired power and compared to renewable energy for power generation (as opposed to other fossil fuels such as gas, which are considered separately).
Analysis: Highlights of EV and solar power – and the looming threats on the horizon
This is clearly good news, and the Ember report makes the interesting point that electric vehicles (EVs) are a “structural driver of electricity demand growth,” accounting for about 8% of global electricity demand growth last year.
EV growth last year totaled 66 TWh, which is a significant increase compared to 36 TWh in 2024, and EV sales now account for more than 25% of the global car market, the think tank notes.
I wouldn’t bet on an even bigger jump due to rising fuel costs, with a recent report from the UK noting that EV sales rose 24.2% year-on-year in March (diesel and petrol cars were down 6.1% and 11.4% respectively).
Aside from EVs, Enver points to solar power as a key driver of renewable energy, saying: “Solar power build-up is accelerating in parallel with the introduction of battery storage, enabling the next paradigm shift from daytime solar power to anytime solar power.”
As the cost of batteries has fallen “precipitously” over the past two years, to 20% in 2024 and 45% last year, deployment has increased by 46%, and “the world has installed enough battery capacity to shift 14% of new solar generation in 2025 from midday to other times.”
Advances in solar power apply not only to traditional large panel arrays, but also to devices that harness power from the sun. Examples include this solar-powered Windows 11 laptop and a smart lock with a mini solar panel that was showcased at CES 2026 a few months ago. Solar-powered home security cameras are also becoming much more common, and offer the important benefit of eliminating wires.
These are certainly very small increases in solar usage, but they all add up in addition to the progress that is clearly being made in this area.
Amid all this positive news about renewable energy, what could potentially taint the situation are the threats posed by the construction of AI-powered data centers, their power needs, and how they will be met. This risk is being taken seriously, and in a recent development in the United States, the state of Maine even passed a new law that effectively bans the construction of sprawling data centers in certain areas.
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