Renewables overtake coal as the world’s top source of electricity for the first time

Story: 2025 C.E.  |  Last updated: April 20, 2026

For the first time in recorded history, renewable energy generated more electricity globally than coal in a single half-year period — a milestone that energy analysts at Ember say marks the beginning of a structural shift in how the world powers itself. Solar drove most of the change, meeting 83% of the growth in electricity demand on its own. The economics behind this shift are now so powerful that new solar markets can emerge in a single country within a single year.

At a glance

• Renewable energy milestone: Clean sources — led by solar and wind — outpaced coal in global electricity generation in the first half of 2025 C.E., according to data from the energy think tank Ember.
• Solar power growth: Solar has been the largest source of new electricity globally for three consecutive years and now generates the majority of its output — 58% — in lower-income countries.
• Coal decline: Even as electricity demand rose worldwide, the growth in clean energy was strong enough to push a slight decline in combined coal and gas use globally.

How solar got here

The numbers behind solar’s rise are almost hard to believe. Panel prices have fallen 99.9% since 1975 C.E. That is not a typo. What was once a technology reserved for satellites and wealthy early adopters is now the cheapest form of new electricity generation ever recorded.

That cost collapse has made it possible for large solar markets to emerge almost overnight. Pakistan imported solar panels capable of generating 17 gigawatts of power in 2024 C.E. — double the previous year, and roughly equivalent to a third of the country’s entire existing electricity capacity. Africa’s solar panel imports rose 60% in the year to June 2025 C.E. Algeria increased imports 33-fold. Zambia grew eightfold. Botswana sevenfold.

Nigeria overtook Egypt to rank second on the continent, adding 1.7 gigawatts of solar capacity — enough to meet the electricity needs of roughly 1.8 million European homes. These are not footnotes. They represent communities gaining access to reliable, affordable power for the first time, often in places where grid electricity has historically been expensive, unreliable, or simply absent.

Who is leading — and who is falling behind

The picture is genuinely uneven, and it is worth sitting with that complexity rather than smoothing it over.

China and India are driving the clean energy surge. China added more solar and wind capacity than the rest of the world combined, growing its renewable generation fast enough to reduce overall fossil fuel use by 2%. India, despite slower electricity demand growth, also cut back on coal and gas by adding significant new capacity.

The United States and the European Union moved in the opposite direction. In the U.S., electricity demand grew faster than clean energy output, increasing reliance on fossil fuels. In the E.U., months of weak wind and weak hydropower performance pushed coal and gas use higher. The International Energy Agency has since halved its forecast for U.S. renewable growth this decade — from 500 gigawatts by 2030 C.E. to 250 gigawatts — citing the impact of current federal energy policy. Meanwhile, China’s clean tech exports reached a record $20 billion in August 2025 C.E., driven by surging sales of electric vehicles and batteries.

This divergence — developing economies leading the clean energy charge while some wealthy nations increase fossil fuel dependence — is one of the more striking reversals in the recent history of climate and energy.

The real-world stakes of cheaper electricity

Cheaper electricity is not an abstraction. It shapes whether children can study after dark, whether small clinics can keep medicines refrigerated, whether farmers can pump water without diesel. The fact that 58% of global solar generation now happens in lower-income countries reflects a meaningful shift in who benefits from the energy transition.

Countries in what energy analyst Adair Turner calls the “sun belt” — across much of Asia, Africa, and Latin America — can use solar paired with increasingly affordable batteries to dramatically cut the cost of daytime electricity, including for air conditioning as temperatures rise. The International Renewable Energy Agency has consistently documented how clean energy deployment is now central to economic development strategies across the Global South, not just climate commitments.

The speed of this expansion is also creating unexpected complications. In Afghanistan, the rapid spread of solar-powered water pumps is drawing down groundwater at rates that could threaten entire farming regions within five to ten years, according to research by Dr. David Mansfield. Wind energy faces its own headwinds: turbine costs have not fallen anything like as steeply as solar panels, and higher interest rates have raised the price of offshore wind projects significantly. Balancing power grids through weeks-long winter wind lulls remains a genuine engineering and cost challenge — one that batteries alone cannot yet solve.

A turning point, not a finish line

Ember senior analyst Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka described the moment as “the beginning of a shift where clean power is keeping pace with demand growth.” That framing is precise and worth holding onto. Keeping pace is not the same as winning outright. Coal remains the world’s largest single source of electricity generation when measured across a full year. The world’s pledge at COP28 to triple renewable capacity by 2030 C.E. remains off track. Grid infrastructure in many regions has not kept pace with generation, and financing gaps in lower-income countries continue to slow deployment where it is most needed.

But the direction is now clear in a way it has not been before. The forces driving the renewable energy milestone — falling costs, growing markets, and expanding manufacturing capacity — are structural, not temporary. The question is no longer whether the transition is happening. It is how fast, and who gets to shape it.

Read more

For more on this story, see: BBC News — Renewables overtake coal as the world’s largest source of electricity

For more from Good News for Humankind, see:

• Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
• Alzheimer’s risk cut in half by drug in landmark prevention trial
• The Good News for Humankind archive on clean energy

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