Renewable Energy: Solar and Wind Meet All New Global Electricity Demand

Historic Achievement

Solar and wind energy have grown sufficiently to meet all new electricity demand worldwide during the first three quarters of 2025. Solar generation rose by 498 terawatt-hours (+31%) and has already surpassed the total solar output for the entire year of 2024. Wind generation increased by 137 terawatt-hours (+7.6%).

For the first time in history, renewables have overtaken coal as the largest source of global electricity in the first half of 2025. The share of renewables in global electricity rose to 34.3% (from 32.7%), while coal's share fell to 33.1% (from 34.2%).

Chinese Leadership: China is expected to install 66% of the world’s new solar capacity and 69% of new wind power next year. In China, fossil fuel generation fell by 52 terawatt-hours (-1.1%) as clean energy covered all new demand.

The Next Challenge: Renewable energy is spreading much faster than governments anticipated, but unless countries urgently update their targets, we risk a shortfall in the necessary infrastructure, flexibility, and storage to support this extraordinary growth.