The global energy landscape reached a quiet but profound inflection point in 2025. According to the latest annual review from the thinktank Ember, renewable energy has officially overtaken coal to become the world’s largest source of electricity. It is the first time since 1919 that renewables have held a larger share of the power mix than coal, marking the end of a century-long era defined by the dominance of the "king" of fossil fuels.
Unlike previous year-on-year declines in fossil fuel generation, which were typically the byproduct of economic recessions or global crises, the 0.2% drop recorded in 2025 appears to be structural. Wind and solar alone met 99% of the growth in global electricity demand last year. This suggests that the transition is no longer a matter of policy ambition alone, but a fundamental realignment of the world’s industrial machinery.
Solar power, in particular, has emerged as the primary engine of this change. Generation increased by 30% in 2025, meeting three-quarters of the entire global growth in electricity demand. To put its scale in perspective, the record 636 terawatt hours added by solar last year exceeded the total potential energy of all liquid natural gas exports passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the rise of electric vehicles has begun to erode the oil sector’s foundations, displacing 1.8 million barrels of demand per day.
The result is a global grid that is finally, and perhaps permanently, decoupling from carbon. Coal now accounts for less than a third of global electricity generation for the first time in history. While the path to total decarbonization remains long, the data from 2025 confirms that the era of fossil fuel growth in the power sector has likely moved into the rearview mirror.
With reporting from Carbon Brief.
Source · Carbon Brief
