In 2025, renewable energy sources officially became a larger part of the world’s electricity supply than coal for the first time in over a century. According to the authors of the newly released report, this historic shift occurred as a massive surge in solar power generation was enough to meet all new global demand, effectively pushing coal into second place.
“For the first time in 100 years, renewables (33.8%, 10,730 TWh) overtook coal power (33.0%, 10,476 TWh) in the global electricity mix as continued rapid growth in solar and wind pushed the share of renewables above a third of global generation.”
This means that for the first time in the modern age, the combined output from sources like wind, solar, and water surpassed the world’s reliance on burning coal. While coal was the primary engine for the global power grid for generations, it has now been overtaken by cleaner alternatives that are expanding fast enough to keep up with the world’s increasing need for power.
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.
