For the first time in history, wind and solar power together crossed the 10% threshold for global electricity generation — a milestone that shows the energy transition is not a distant promise but an unfolding reality. According to a 2022 C.E. report from Ember, an independent climate think tank, wind and solar accounted for 10.3% of total global electricity in 2021 C.E., up from 9.3% the year before. Taken together, all clean energy sources — including hydro, nuclear, and bioenergy — supplied 38% of the world’s power, outpacing coal for the first time.
At a glance
- Global wind and solar share: Wind and solar combined reached 10.3% of global electricity generation in 2021 C.E., covering 209 countries tracked over two decades of data.
- Fastest-growing markets: The Netherlands, Australia, and Vietnam each shifted roughly a tenth of their total power supply from fossil fuels to wind and solar in just two years — among the fastest national energy transitions on record.
- Renewable energy growth rate: Solar generation rose 23% globally in 2021 C.E., while wind supply grew 14% — a combined pace that Ember says, if maintained through 2030 C.E., puts the power sector on track to meet the 1.5°C climate target.
A decade of momentum
The climb to 10% didn’t happen overnight. Wind and solar have sustained a 20% compound annual growth rate over the past decade — a pace almost unheard of in the energy sector. Just 20 years ago, the combined share of these two sources in global electricity was barely measurable.
Fifty countries now generate more than 10% of their electricity from wind and solar. Ten countries have crossed 25%. Denmark leads the world at 52%, generating more clean electricity from these two sources than it consumes. Spain, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom are not far behind.
China — often cited primarily for its coal dependence — quietly crossed the 10% wind-and-solar threshold for the first time in 2021 C.E. as well. Given that China represents the single largest electricity market on Earth, that crossing carries enormous weight for global totals.
Why the 1.5°C goal still depends on speed
Ember’s analysis found a clear mathematical path: if the 20% annual growth rate for wind and solar holds through 2030 C.E., the global power sector would be on track to limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. That’s the threshold scientists warn the world must stay under to avoid the most severe consequences of climate disruption.
“We’re getting closer to that break-even where wind and solar can cover new electricity demand, but we are still not quite there,” said Dave Jones, Ember’s global lead. “If we maintain those growth rates, we will be there shortly.”
The key bottleneck is not technology or cost — it’s permitting, grid infrastructure, and policy speed. In many countries, approved wind and solar projects sit in queues for years before breaking ground. Governments that want to accelerate the transition need to clear those procedural logjams, not just set targets.
The honest complication: coal also surged
The same year that wind and solar hit their milestone, coal-fired generation saw its fastest growth since at least 1985 C.E. — up 9%, to 10,042 terawatt hours (TWh). Global electricity demand in 2021 C.E. rose by 1,414 TWh, its largest single-year increase on record, roughly equivalent to adding India’s entire electricity consumption to global totals. Much of that new demand was met by coal, not renewables.
Carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector climbed to an all-time high that year, surpassing the previous record set in 2018 C.E. The energy recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine driving up gas prices, pushed many countries to lean harder on the fuels they already had. The transition is real, but it is racing against rising demand — and demand is winning some rounds.
Momentum from unexpected places
Some of the most striking gains came from countries that rarely dominate energy headlines. Vietnam has become one of the world’s fastest solar deployers, driven by government feed-in tariffs and falling panel costs. Ember’s Global Electricity Review 2022 notes that Vietnam’s solar capacity grew from near zero to more than 16 gigawatts in just three years — a pace that rivals much wealthier nations.
Australia, meanwhile, has emerged as a per-capita leader in rooftop solar, with households and businesses driving much of the uptake independently of national policy. The Netherlands rapidly expanded offshore wind. These diverse pathways suggest the transition does not require a single political model — it is happening through market forces, policy incentives, community action, and necessity, often simultaneously.
The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook and the International Renewable Energy Agency have both noted that solar in particular is now the cheapest source of new electricity generation in history, a fact that is reshaping investment decisions in every region. Bloomberg’s energy coverage of the Ember report highlighted that costs for both technologies continue to fall, making the economic case for coal progressively harder to defend — even where political will is slow to catch up. And The Guardian’s reporting on this milestone underscored that the shift is now visible even in markets that were once considered unlikely adopters.
The 10% mark is not a finish line. But it is evidence that what once seemed an optimistic projection has become an observable trend — one that now spans 50 countries, two of the world’s largest economies, and every inhabited continent.
Read more
For more on this story, see: CNN
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- Global suicide rate has fallen by 40% since 1995
- The Good News for Humankind archive on renewable energy
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