Record growth in solar, especially in China and India, was a driving factor for clean energy sources surpassing the world’s robust demand for electricity last year, a new global power analysis said.
Clean power generation grew 887 terawatt-hours (TWh) last year, exceeding overall global electricity demand growth of 849TWh, said a report by energy think tank Ember, released after midnight yesterday.
Ember analyzes electricity data from 215 countries, and studied data from last year for 91 countries, which the firm says represents 93 percent of global demand.
Photo: AFP
Overall, the share of renewables — including solar, wind, hydropower and other clean energies — hit more than one-third of the world’s electricity mix for the first time in modern history last year, growing 33.8 percent to 10,730TWh.
It is promising news for a world embattled by climate change that is driven by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas to meet growing needs from economic growth, rising populations and electrification. The analysis is also especially timely amid a global energy crisis exacerbated by the US war in Iran.
In another historical first, coal power saw its share fall below one-third of global generation, dropping 0.6 percent to 63TWh.
“We’re coming from a period over the last few decades where new electricity demand growth meant growth in fossil generation,” said Nicolas Fulghum, Ember senior data analyst and lead author of the report. “We’re now moving into a world where that’s no longer the case.”
Solar, which grew 30 percent last year, alone met three-quarters of last year’s net rise in electricity demand — and combined with wind power generation, met 99 percent of it.
Although solar overtook wind power globally for the first time last year and gained on nuclear power, Ember expects the two to overtake nuclear this year.
Meanwhile, fossil fuel generation essentially halted, and fell about 0.2 percent last year, or 38TWh, making last year one of only a handful of years without a rise this century.
Growth in battery storage accompanied the acceleration of solar around the world; as battery costs fell 45 percent last year, storage grew 46 percent.
Ember estimates that enough battery capacity was added last year to shift 14 percent of the solar generation added from midday to other hours of the day.
That is an important part of using solar generation beyond the daytime, when it can be collected.
So, “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; and that is a stark departure from the last few decades,” Fulghum said.
Last year also marked the first time this century that both China and India — historically major contributors of fossil power — saw declines in fossil fuel generation. In China, the decline was 0.9 percent, or 56TWh, and in India, 3.3 percent, or 56TWh.
Instead, they’re “now aggressively pursuing a strategy of diversification through bringing renewables into the mix, and those are the sources that are the biggest drivers of change in their power system today,” Fulghum said.
China led the globe in solar, and is responsible for more than half of the world’s growth in both solar capacity and generation last year. China also accounted for most of the world’s rise in wind, with 138TWh added.
India saw record increases in both solar and wind generation, along with strong hydropower output.
In a reversal from fossil fuel generation increases — which for years, were driven by an economic rebound following the COVID-19 pandemic — India also saw lower-than-average demand growth.
The US and Europe added 85TWh and 60TWh respectively of solar last year, as fossil fuels saw small increases.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has placed pressure on industry leaders to boost coal, oil and gas production and reduced support for renewables; but in Europe, fossil generation is generally trending down. The analysis suggests that despite efforts attacking clean energy in the US, and war-related challenges, the transition continues to make headway around the world.
“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,” said Alexis Abramson, dean of the Columbia University Climate School, who was not involved in the study.
“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 added. “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.”
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
RSS