A landmark 2025 analysis from global energy think tank Ember has revealed a defining turning point in the world’s transition away from fossil fuels: for the first time in modern history, clean renewable energy sources accounted for more than one-third of the entire global electricity mix, and expanded fast enough to fully outpace total growth in worldwide electricity demand.
Released after midnight London time on Tuesday, Ember’s report draws on aggregated electricity data from 215 countries, with verified 2025 data from 91 nations covering 93% of global electricity demand. According to the analysis, total clean power generation expanded by 887 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2025, easily exceeding the 849 TWh rise in overall global electricity demand. When aggregated across solar, wind, hydropower and other zero-emission sources, total renewable generation hit 10,730 TWh last year, pushing its global market share to 33.8% – a historic first. In a parallel milestone, coal-fired power generation dropped enough to push its share of global electricity below one-third for the first time in modern history, falling 0.6 percentage points to 32.9% at 10,630 TWh.
Record-breaking solar expansion, concentrated in China and India, was the single biggest driver of this shift. Solar generation grew 30% globally in 2025, enough to meet 75% of the entire net rise in global electricity demand on its own. When combined with wind power, the two renewable sources covered 99% of 2025’s new electricity demand. Last year also marked the first time solar overtook wind power in total global generation, and Ember projects both wind and solar will overtake nuclear generation in 2026.
Parallel to the solar boom, global battery storage capacity expanded 46% in 2025, spurred by a 45% drop in battery costs. The think tank estimates that 2025’s new battery storage capacity is enough to shift 14% of the year’s new solar generation from peak midday output to other hours of the day, solving a key challenge of solar energy’s intermittent nature.
For the first time this century, both China and India – the world’s two most populous nations and historically the largest growth markets for fossil fuel power – saw absolute declines in fossil fuel generation in 2025. China cut fossil generation by 0.9% (56 TWh), while India reduced fossil output by 3.3% (also 56 TWh). China led the global solar boom, accounting for more than half of all new solar capacity and generation added worldwide last year, and also contributed the largest share of global wind growth, adding 138 TWh of new wind generation. India posted record increases in both solar and wind generation alongside strong hydropower output, with slower-than-average demand growth reversing years of post-pandemic fossil fuel expansion.
Across other major markets, the U.S. added 85 TWh of new solar generation and Europe added 60 TWh, despite small increases in U.S. fossil generation driven by the Trump administration’s policy push to expand coal, oil and gas production and roll back support for renewables. Even with policy headwinds in the U.S. and global energy market volatility exacerbated by the U.S.-Iran war, the global energy transition continues to advance, the report confirms.
Fossil fuel generation overall stalled in 2025, falling by 0.2% or 38 TWh – one of only a handful of times this century that fossil output has not increased year-over-year. Nicolas Fulghum, senior data analyst at Ember and lead author of the report, noted that the 2025 results mark a stark break from decades of past trends. “We’re coming from a period over the last few decades where new electricity demand growth meant growth in fossil generation,” Fulghum explained. “We’re now moving into a world where that’s no longer the case.”
While the historic milestones are cause for cautious optimism, Fulghum emphasized that the transition is still in its early stages. “Milestones like renewables overtaking coal mark an occasion, but they don’t tell us everything about the story in the power sector,” he said. The biggest shift from 10 or 15 years ago, he added, is that government pledges to build out renewables are now far more credible than they once were. Looking ahead, Fulghum argued that clean energy is now positioned to structurally meet growing demand from electrification trends, including the expansion of electric vehicles, heat pumps and industrial electrification. “Despite the accelerated growth and electricity demand that comes with added electric vehicle build out, of heat pumps, industrial sector electrification, clean power will be able to structurally meet that increase in demand going into the next few years, before then bending the curve and reducing the amount of fossil generation we’re using,” he said. “And that is a stark departure from the last few decades.”
Alexis Abramson, dean of the Columbia University Climate School who was not involved in the study, noted that current volatile oil prices driven by the U.S.-Iran war have reinforced the national security case for accelerating renewable adoption. “As we’re seeing the cost of oil be incredibly volatile right now because of the war, I think more and more people are looking to that national security argument as a reason to think about how we electrify more and how we’re able to take advantage of additional solar and wind, which does not rely on other countries,” she said.
Abramson called the 2025 results an important milestone for global climate action. “We’ve really crossed this important threshold that clean energy now can meet rising demand economically and at the same time really help address national security concerns,” she said. “The next challenge is really turning that into a steady decline of fossil fuel use as well. So it’s a great step in the right direction.”
The report arrives as the world grapples with accelerating climate change driven by decades of fossil fuel combustion to power economic growth, population expansion and rising electrification. The findings offer cautious optimism that the global energy transition is now moving past the planning stage and delivering measurable, structural change to the world’s power sector.