All of last year’s growth in global electricity demand was met from renewable sources, while fossil fuel power generation remained flat, research has found, marking what many hope could become a turning point in the drive to phase out planet-heating fossil fuels.
Solar power generation rose by nearly a third in 2025, marking a new record and faster growth. In the decade from 2015, solar output grew tenfold, roughly doubling every three years, according to the thinktank Ember.
More than half of the increase came from China, which has surged ahead in renewable energy and is also the world’s biggest exporter of clean energy components.
Solar power met three-quarters of the increase in electricity demand in 2025, with the remainder mostly met by wind power. Electricity generation from fossil fuels fell by 0.2%.
Aditya Lolla, managing director of Ember, said: “We have firmly entered the era of clean growth. Clean energy is now scaling fast enough to absorb rising global electricity demand, keeping fossil generation flat before its inevitable decline. The momentum we are seeing is no longer just an ambition, it is becoming a structural reality.”
India also showed strong growth in renewable energy, eroding the dependence on coal that has characterised most of its economic growth in recent years.
The country added record amounts of clean generation, outstripping the growth in its electricity demand. Fossil fuel power generation fell by 52 terawatt hours, slightly less than the fall seen in China.
Globally, renewable energy accounted for 34% of electricity generation in 2025, outstripping coal which took a 33% share.
The report also highlighted battery storage as a key factor. About 14% of last year’s additional solar generation was used at other times of day, thanks to large increases in the uptake of batteries, which have fallen sharply in price in the past decade.
The research examined trends last year, before the current oil crisis provoked by the US-Israeli war on Iran. But its findings apply to countries now facing an energy crunch as fossil fuel prices rose, said Lolla.
Transport and heating, highly dependent on oil and gas in many countries, must also be electrified if the world is to transition away from fossil fuels, meaning a global increase in electricity demand, and one that will require improvements to infrastructure such as power grids.
Lolla said: “Clean energy is already helping countries reduce exposure to fossil fuel imports and costs while meeting rising electricity demand. The next step is to modernise grids and regulatory frameworks so power systems are ready to handle this new reality.”
This month, more than 50 countries will meet in Colombia to discuss the global transition away from fossil fuels – a meeting arranged last year that has taken on greater urgency with the oil crisis.