The year the world drew more power from the sun and the wind than from coal — for the first time since coal-fired generation began.
Renewables
33.8%
10,730 TWh generated
Coal
33.0%
10,476 TWh generated
It's a gap of just 254 TWh — less than half a percentage point — but the direction is what matters: coal generation fell for only the fifth time this century, while solar and wind alone met 99% of the world's new electricity demand. Renewables supplied 18.7% of global electricity in 2000. In 2025, for the first time, they supplied more than coal.
Solar generation
2,778 TWh
▲ 30% YoY · record +636 TWh
Of new electricity demand met by solar + wind alone
99%
Solar alone met 75% of it
Solar + wind capacity added
814 GW
▲ 17% vs 696 GW in 2024
Battery storage deployed
≈250 GWh
▲ 46% YoY · costs ▼ 45%
Share of global electricity generation, selected years
Solar has roughly doubled every three years since 2022 — the fastest sustained growth of any energy technology on record.
| Year | Solar share of global electricity |
|---|
2025 generation by source
| Source | Share |
|---|
*Wind + hydro + solar + bioenergy, 33.5% here. Ember's own headline renewables total for 2025 (33.8%, used above) draws on slightly finer-grained source data than this public breakdown.
New solar + wind capacity, GW
| Year | Solar | Wind | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | — | — | 696 GW |
| 2025 | 647 GW | 167 GW | 814 GW |
2024's split by technology wasn't separately reported — shown here as one bar.
Operating wind + solar capacity, end of 2025
| Country | Operating capacity |
|---|
China's operating fleet is roughly triple the next two countries combined.