Solar And Wind Cover 99% Of Global Electricity Demand Growth in 2025, Fossil Generation Falls

The report claims global electricity demand reached new heights in 2025, breaking the record set the previous year in 2024. And that was before adding the capacity and efficiency associated with the 2025 level of demand. It will take another year before we know how much of the electricity supply currently generated from fossil fuels will be replaced by solar and wind power. However, it is clear that in 2025, 99 percent (or nearly all) of the increase in electricity demand was met by solar and wind power sources, making up for nearly all of the increase in global electricity supply from fossil fuel sources. The global electricity supply has increased by over 887 TWh (terawatt hours) in 2025 compared to the previous year, in which 849 TWh of global electricity supplies were also added. This is the first time that global fossil fuel electrical generation has decreased from the previous year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A decrease of approximately 0.2% has been experienced this past year with fossil fuels generating less than the previous year.

Solar Power Generation Growth 2020-2024 - A 622 TWh (29%) increase from 2024 to 2025 represented the largest increase over an 8-year time frame by Ember Research with global solar generation increasing to 2,778 TWh; 75% of net increase in global electricity demand came from increased solar generation.

"These additional, global solar generation is enough to replace gas-generated electricity at a quantity equal to the amount of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exported through the Strait of Hormuz last year, which is estimated at approximately 550 TWh," stated Ember.

Solar total compared to wind generation in 2024; in 2024, 582 GW added from 2021; in 2025, wind added 205 TWh to solar generation with total solar capacity at 647 GW; 11-GW or 2%, increase.

For the first time globally on record, renewables surpassed coal in the mix of energy used to produce electricity in 2025, producing 10,730 TWh (33.8% of generation worldwide) compared to 10,476 TWh (33%) with coal.

"This was also the only year since 2020 that fossil fuel-based generation did not increase and just the fifth time this century," said Ember.

Combined solar, wind, hydropower, and others achieved overall renewable generation over 1/3 of total electricity generation for the first time ever in the modern power system. When counting nuclear as part of emissions free sources total, 43% of total electricity generated came from low-emissions sources - the highest level in the last 50 years.

China has played a crucial part in the transition from traditional forms of energy towards renewable sources of energy with more than 50% of the overall growth in either solar or wind energy capacity occurring within its borders as of 2025. The country has added more than 315 gigawatts of new solar capacity and more than 119 gigawatts of wind capacity, both historic record amounts. By the close of December 2025, the total cumulative amount of solar capacity installed in China has increased to approximately 1.20 terawatts, an increase of approximately 35.4%, and the total amount of wind has increased to approximately 0.64 terawatts, an increase of approximately 22.9%. Combined, these two sources of energy represent approximately 47.3% of China's total installed power generation capacity.

Understanding this, Ember has calculated that the total amount of electricity generated in China from solar and wind energy has been more than 2,310 terawatt hours in 2025, meeting approximately 94% of all the new electricity used in the country. China accounted for more than roughly 58% of all new solar capacity and more than 72% of all new wind capacity installed in the world in that time period.

In both China and India, fossil fuel-based electricity generation declined in 2025, marking the first time this has happened this century. In China, this was primarily attributed to increased solar generation leading to more than a 56 terawatt-hour decline in fossil-fuel generated electricity due to an increase in total clean electricity generation exceeding the total demand. In India, a combination of increased solar, wind, and hydropower generation and continued low growth in the amount of electrical energy needed to operate its economy resulted in more than a 52 terawatt-hour reduction of fossil-fuel-generated electricity after several years of increasing fossil-fuel-based electricity generation.

Since 2015, the percentage of electricity globally that is generated using coal in China's power market has decreased from an estimated 70% to 54%, representing a major change within one of the world's largest markets for electricity generation.

The rapid growth of solar energy has led to more solar energy being used with batteries, allowing energy to be moved from an excess of solar energy generated during the daytime to a useable supply of solar energy 24 hours a day. In the past two years, battery costs have decreased by almost 20 percent in 2024. In 2025, battery costs decreased further by about 45 percent. Similarly, battery storage deployment has passed 250 GWh, representing a 50 percent growth in 2025. As a result, approximately 14 percent of new solar energy generation will be utilized at other times of the day from battery storage.

The report stated that grid-scale batteries are currently operating in both Chile and Australia to help convert solar power generated during the day into solar power that can be used at night.

While the data represents a historic milestone, Ember cautioned that the fossil fuel era is far from over.

"These developments point to a shift in the underlying dynamics of the power system: clean electricity is increasingly meeting demand growth. This transition remains uneven and incomplete. Fossil fuels continue to play a significant role, and progress varies across regions," said Bryony Worthington, founder and chair of Ember's board.

Aditya Lolla, Ember's Managing Director, expressed a more confident outlook: "We have firmly entered the era of clean growth. The current expansion of clean energy is sufficient to meet rising global electricity demand. This is no longer a vision-it is becoming a structural reality".

Coal remained the largest single source of electricity globally at 34 percent in 2025, followed by natural gas at 21 percent, highlighting continued fossil fuel reliance. However, the International Energy Agency forecasts that wind and solar will push renewables ahead of coal as the world's leading power source by 2026 at the latest.

Electric vehicles added around 66 TWh to global electricity demand in 2025, representing 8 percent of global demand growth, up from 46 TWh the previous year due to record EV sales. Data centers added an estimated 60 TWh, or 7 percent of demand growth, according to IEA estimates.

According to the International Energy Agency, it is estimated that worldwide consumption of electricity will increase by 3.3% in 2025 and by another 3.7% in 2026, which will be the fastest rate of growth in more than 10 years. The growth in the global consumption of electricity will largely be met by increases in renewable energy sources (solar PV and wind), and in 2025, the share of renewables in the generation of electricity should be greater than that of coal.

Ember reports that solar generation has increased more than 10 times since 2015, roughly doubling every three years, and currently equals the entire amount of electricity consumed annually by the countries of the EU.