In 2025, a massive surge in solar energy and other clean sources successfully met the world’s entire increase in electricity demand, preventing any rise in fossil fuel use for the first time outside of major economic crises. This structural shift was primarily driven by record-breaking solar growth in major economies like China and India, according to the authors of the newly released report.
“Record solar growth meant clean power sources grew fast enough to meet all new electricity demand in 2025, thereby preventing an increase in fossil generation. This was the first year since 2020 without an increase in electricity generation from fossil fuels and only the fifth year without a rise this century.”
Basically, as people around the world used more electricity to power their homes and businesses, utility companies did not need to burn more coal or gas to keep up. Instead, the huge number of new solar panels and wind turbines installed over the last year produced enough extra energy to cover all that new growth. Because clean energy did all the heavy lifting, the total amount of electricity produced by polluting fossil fuels actually stayed flat or even dropped slightly for the first time in modern history.
The report “Global Electricity Review 2026” was published by the energy think tank Ember on April 21, 2026. Prepared by a team of researchers led by Nicolas Fulghum, the study offers a comprehensive overview of how clean energy met all global electricity demand growth over the past year.
