For the first time in history, renewable energy has produced more of the world’s electricity than coal, according to a new analysis of global energy trends.
In the first half of 2025, solar and wind energy outstripped growth in global electricity demand and led to a small but significant reduction in the use of fossil fuels compared to the year before, clean energy analysts Ember said.
The finding coincides with the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasting a doubling of global clean energy capacity by 2030.
“We are seeing the first signs of a crucial turning point,” said Ember’s electricity analyst, Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka.
Deployment of renewable generation, particularly in developing economies, has outpaced new fossil fuel power in recent years.
Maintenance work on a solar farm in eastern China. File pic: FeatureChina/AP
‘The beginning of a shift’
But many experts warned the increase would not be enough to meet rising global demand for electricity, let alone start to reduce emissions and therefore combat global warming.
Ms Watros-Motyka said: “Solar and wind are now growing fast enough to not only meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity – this marks the beginning of a shift where clean power is keeping pace with demand growth.”
The IEA analysis of renewable energy trends predicts global renewable generation will increase by 4,600 gigawatts by 2030 – a growth equivalent, it says, to the current total power generation of China, the EU and Japan combined.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol said solar photovoltaic, or solar PV (the technology that converts sunlight into electricity using solar panels made up of photovoltaic cells), “is on course to account for some 80% of the increase in the world’s renewable…
