Global electricity · 2025
A Near Tie, Decades in the Making
In 2025, renewable electricity reached coal’s scale. The final order remains uncertain; the larger shift does not.
Energy transitions rarely arrive as a clean, ceremonial moment. More often, they rely on us to notice when years of practical decisions have quietly changed the balance, and then decide what to build around that change.
That is what happened in 2025.
The long tilt
The balance, over time
Global electricity · live timeline
2000
Ember · annual series
5,809
TWh · coal
2,860
TWh · all renewables
Power in the balance
2000
Ember · annual value
Load area follows annual generation. The beam uses a compressed relative gap so the near-level finish remains visible; the live counter carries the numeric scale. Motion between annual observations is smoothly interpolated and lands exactly on each published row; it is not monthly data.
Source: Ember, Yearly Electricity Data, live revision dated 23 June 2026. Annual gross generation, TWh. “All renewables” combines hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy and other renewables. Ember’s live 2025 frame places renewables 226.74 TWh ahead; the separately based preliminary annex to IEA, Electricity 2026 places coal 26 TWh ahead. The estimates are not blended; both describe a near tie.
Data receipt · 26 annual observations
In Ember’s live 2000–2025 series, all renewable sources together moved slightly ahead of coal for the first time: 10,717 terawatt-hours, compared with 10,490 TWh from coal, a lead of 227 TWh. In the International Energy Agency’s preliminary accounting, the order was narrowly reversed: 10,734 TWh from renewables and 10,760 TWh from coal, a difference of just 26 TWh.
Both sources place each side at roughly one-third of global electricity generation. One leaves renewables slightly ahead; the other leaves coal slightly ahead. The figures should not be averaged because their methods and data vintages differ, but they lead to the same conclusion.
In 2025, renewables drew level with coal.
“Roughly” is doing honest work here. The latest figures remain live or preliminary and may be revised. Coal is also one fuel, while “renewables” is a family: hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy and other renewable sources. The comparison is asymmetric, but it is meaningful.
For most of the modern power era, that entire family remained well below coal. Now the old distance has almost vanished.
In 2000, coal produced 5,809 TWh of electricity worldwide. All renewables combined produced 2,860 TWh. Coal’s lead was not marginal; it generated slightly more than twice as much.
The next quarter-century did not follow a simple story of one source rising while the other declined. Coal grew too: its 2025 output was about 81% higher than in 2000. Renewable generation, however, grew by about 275%.
The final year brought the two together. Ember’s series shows renewable generation rising by 840 TWh in 2025, slightly more than the entire net increase in global electricity output, while coal generation fell by 49 TWh. A 662 TWh coal lead in 2024 became a 227 TWh renewable lead one year later.
The crossover
All renewables drew level with coal
Global gross electricity generation by source, 2000–2025. Ember’s live series puts all renewables just ahead; the IEA’s preliminary annex records a near tie in the other direction.
Sources: Ember, Yearly Electricity Data, live revision dated 23 June 2026; and IEA, Electricity 2026, February 2026 preliminary annex. The chart itself uses only Ember’s gross-generation series. “All renewables” combines solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy and other renewables. The separately based IEA annex reports 10,734 TWh for all renewables and 10,760 TWh for coal (coal +26 TWh). The 2025 Ember values are live and revisable.
Data receipt · all 26 annual values
2025 · share of global generation
The world’s electricity mix, almost in thirds
The crossover is striking because it is both sudden and slow. The last gap closed in a year; the conditions that closed it took decades to build. It is not evidence that coal has disappeared. Coal remains the world’s largest individual source of electricity. What changed is that renewables became large enough, together, to meet it at the scale of the global system.
Inside the total
The total changed from within
“Renewables” can sound like a single technology. It is better understood as a mixture whose proportions have been changing almost as quickly as its size.
At the beginning of the century, hydropower supplied about 92% of renewable electricity. It established the base on which the larger total was built, and it remains the largest individual renewable source: 4,432 TWh in 2025. But hydro’s output was nearly flat that year, edging down by 3 TWh.
The growth came elsewhere. Solar generation rose by 636 TWh in 2025, an increase of nearly 30%. Wind added another 204 TWh. Together, solar and wind supplied virtually all of the net increase in renewable generation.
They also changed the balance of the mix. Solar and wind produced 5,491 TWh in 2025, which was 51.2% of all renewable electricity and 1,058 TWh more than hydro. In Ember’s current series, their combined output first moved above hydro in 2024. A year later, solar also edged just past wind.
2024 → 2025 · change in generation
One year moved the gap by 889 TWh
Renewables added 840 TWh while coal generation declined by 49 TWh.
−49Coal · TWh
−3Hydro · TWh
Solar and wind now make up more than half of renewable generation
Global gross renewable electricity generation by source, 2000–2025, in terawatt-hours.
Hydro
Wind
Solar
Bioenergy
Other renewables
Hydro versus the wind + solar build
Annual TWh. Hydro is the left column; wind and solar are stacked in the adjacent column.
Source: Ember, Yearly Electricity Data, live revision dated 23 June 2026. Values are gross-generation estimates in terawatt-hours; 2025 is live and revisable. Solar includes PV and solar thermal, including distributed generation where Ember can estimate it. Hydropower excludes pumped generation where possible. Bioenergy is included; other renewables comprise geothermal, tidal and wave generation.
Data receipt · all 26 annual values
Hydropower built the floor. Wind widened it. Solar changed the slope.
That internal handoff matters because it explains why the total is now moving so quickly. Hydropower depends on long project timelines and specific geography. Wind broadened the field. Solar made new generating capacity modular: it could be added in vast utility projects, on commercial roofs and behind household meters. The result is not simply more renewable electricity. It is a different pattern of growth.
2025 · net change in renewable capacity stock
Solar and wind supplied 96.8% of the increase
96.8%
Solar + wind
Shares use IRENA’s change in published year-end capacity stock; they are not gross commissioned additions.
The global current
Across time, through the grid, into one total
2000
Renewables 2,860 TWh
Coal 5,809 TWh
2000
2025
Source: Ember, Yearly Electricity Data, live revision dated 23 June 2026. Annual generation in TWh. Both batteries share a 0–12,000 TWh scale.
Source: Ember, Yearly Electricity Data, live revision dated 23 June 2026. Annual generation in TWh. Ribbons show statistical contributions, not physical cross-border transmission. The battery uses a 0–12,000 TWh scale.
Asia supplied 5,350.07 TWh, or 49.9% of global renewable electricity in 2025. Europe supplied 2,124.33 TWh; North America 1,576.14; Latin America and the Caribbean 1,172.28; Africa 261.23; Oceania 152.73; and the Middle East 80.28.
2025 · geography of renewable generation
Half the world’s renewable electricity came from Asia
The geography beneath the total
One current, many power systems
The global total also hides geography. There is no single renewable power system operating at planetary scale; there are many regional systems, developing at different speeds and from different starting points.
Asia supplied 5,350 TWh of renewable electricity in 2025, almost exactly half of the world total. Europe contributed about one-fifth, North America 14.7%, and Latin America and the Caribbean 10.9%. Among Ember’s published country figures, China alone produced 3,912 TWh, or 36.5% of global renewable generation.
The regional mixes are as different as their totals. Renewables supplied nearly two-thirds of generation in Latin America and the Caribbean, but about one-third in Asia. Europe drew heavily from wind, hydro and solar; Asia’s much larger flow was spread across all three at greater scale.
A second crossover
The machinery beneath the milestone
Generation measures what the power system produced. Capacity measures the maximum net generating capability installed and connected at year-end. The two describe related changes, but they are not interchangeable.
That distinction reveals a second crossover.
At the end of 2024, global solar generating capacity stood at 1,880 gigawatts, 227 GW behind coal. By the end of 2025, solar had reached 2,392 GW, while coal stood at 2,193 GW. Solar was now 198 GW ahead.
The change in the underlying stock was just as telling. Solar’s year-end capacity stock increased by 511 GW between the two observations. Coal’s increased by 87 GW. Solar’s net increase was 5.9 times as large.
A different milestone
The system behind the crossover
Solar’s installed capacity passed coal
At year-end 2024, solar was 227 GW behind. One year later, it was 198 GW ahead. Capacity is measured in gigawatts, not annual electricity generated.
2025 net change in year-end capacity stock
Difference between published year-end stocks, not gross commissioned additions.
Source: IRENASTAT and IRENA, Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026. “Solar” includes photovoltaic and solar thermal capacity. Capacity is maximum net generating capacity normally installed and connected at calendar year-end; values combine on- and off-grid capacity. Changes may reflect retirements, revisions or reclassifications. IRENA combines official submissions, unofficial sources and estimates; row-level status flags are not retained in this API extract. Values shown are rounded; calculations use unrounded data.
Data receipt · source values and derived comparisons
| Series | 2024 capacity (GW) | 2025 capacity (GW) | 2025 net stock change (GW) | Solar − coal (GW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solar energy (PV + solar thermal) | 1,880.397 | 2,391.585 | +511.188 | −226.553 (2024); +198.135 (2025) |
| Coal | 2,106.949 | 2,193.450 | +86.501 | Reference series |
Solar’s net change in year-end capacity stock during 2025 was 5.9097 times coal’s. Installed capacity does not indicate how much electricity each source generated.
This does not mean solar generated more electricity than coal. A gigawatt of solar and a gigawatt of coal do not produce the same amount of electricity over a year. Sunlight varies; plants operate for different numbers of hours; grids curtail or dispatch resources according to local conditions. Capacity is not output.
It is, however, a record of what is in place and how that installed stock is changing. IRENA’s 2025 statistics put total renewable capacity at 5,149 GW, up 692 GW from the previous year-end stock. Solar supplied 73.9% of that increase and wind another 22.9%. Together, they accounted for 96.8% of the change.
The energy generation tie records what the system produced. The capacity crossover shows the machinery taking shape beneath it.
What the crossover does not settle
A threshold, not a finish line
There is a temptation to treat a crossover as a conclusion. It is better understood as a coordinate: a precise place on a much longer route.
Coal remains immense. Power-sector carbon dioxide emissions were still about 13.9 billion tonnes in 2025, according to the IEA. Renewable growth also remains highly concentrated, and the infrastructure required to carry it is not keeping pace everywhere. More than 2,500 GW of renewable, storage and large-load projects are stalled in grid-connection queues worldwide. The IEA estimates that annual grid investment must rise by roughly 50% by 2030.
These are not secondary details. Solar capacity can often be added faster than transmission can be planned, permitted and built. Capacity can be installed without being fully used. Electricity can be abundant in one place and difficult to deliver in another. The next phase of the transition will depend as much on networks, storage, planning and institutions as it does on turbines and modules.
Still, the near tie changes the terms of the conversation. Renewables no longer need to prove that they can become consequential. They already operate at the scale of the power source that defined the industrial age.
The lines have converged. What comes next depends on whether grids, storage, finance and public institutions can change around them at the same speed.
Reporting note and primary sources
Graphics 02–04 use Ember’s live Yearly Electricity Data, revised 23 June 2026. Ember defines renewables as solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy and other renewables; its latest annual values may be revised. The IEA comparison comes from the preliminary 2025 annex to Electricity 2026 and is presented separately rather than blended into Ember’s series.
Graphic 05 uses IRENASTAT year-end installed-capacity data. “Solar” includes photovoltaic and solar thermal capacity. Changes are differences between published year-end stocks and may include retirements, revisions or reclassifications; they are not gross construction totals.
Primary sources: Ember Yearly Electricity Data, Ember methodology, IEA Electricity 2026, and IRENA Renewable Capacity Statistics 2026.