2025: Renewables Overtook Coal

It finally happened. The thing climate conferences, think tanks, and a few smug electric car owners have been hinting at for years: renewables have officially overtaken coal in global electricity generation. Not in promises, not in projections, not in one of those neat PowerPoint scenarios with 2030 written in bold — but in real, measurable watts humming through the world’s power grids. According to Ember’s Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025, the planet crossed a historic line. For the first time, wind and solar produced more electricity than coal. Somewhere, an oil executive probably dropped his cigar.

It’s the kind of milestone that should have trumpets blaring and schoolchildren planting trees. But it’s also the kind that sneaks up quietly — not because it wasn’t expected, but because it seemed perpetually ‘almost there.’ Like that friend who’s been ‘nearly done’ writing their novel for seven years. Yet here we are: renewables generated 34.3% of global electricity in the first half of 2025, while coal lagged behind at 33.1%. A decimal victory, perhaps, but one that marks a structural shift in how the world powers itself.

Solar, the golden child of this transition, didn’t just help — it ran the show. Global solar generation jumped 31%, adding a record-breaking 306 terawatt hours. To put that into perspective, that’s more electricity than the entire UK consumes in a year, created by panels quietly soaking up sunlight on rooftops, deserts, and fields. Solar alone met 83% of the entire global rise in electricity demand. The sun, it seems, is finally doing overtime for free.

The geographic spread of this solar explosion is almost poetic. China, often painted as the villain in global emissions charts, accounted for a staggering 55% of the world’s solar growth. The United States followed with 14%, the European Union with 12%, India with 6%, and Brazil with 3%. Together, these five accounted for 90% of the world’s new solar generation. It’s as if the big economies decided, almost in unison, to swap bragging rights from ‘biggest polluter’ to ‘fastest cleaner.’ And for the first time, at least 29 countries now get more than 10% of their electricity from solar power — up from 22 just a year earlier.

Of course, not all renewables bask in equal glory. Wind, the slightly moodier cousin of solar, grew too — by 7.7% — but its global rise has slowed. Some years, the air just doesn’t cooperate. Yet even with gentler breezes, wind power added 97 terawatt hours, bringing its global share to 9.2%. That means solar is now snapping at its heels: 1,303 TWh for solar, 1,365 TWh for wind. Given another sunny quarter, solar might overtake wind next, and the world will need to invent new metaphors for friendly competition between elements.

This leap forward in renewables has done something rather extraordinary — it’s frozen fossil generation in place. Fossil-fuel power output fell slightly, by 27 TWh (a modest 0.3%), but that’s enough to mark the first global plateau after decades of relentless rise. Emissions from the power sector even declined a little, by 12 million tonnes of CO₂, or 0.2%. Now, 0.2% may not sound like a victory worth writing an anthem for, but here’s the twist: without the solar and wind surge, emissions would have risen by 236 million tonnes. In other words, renewables didn’t just meet the new demand; they cancelled out the world’s bad habits.

The report’s authors call this moment a “turning point,” and they’re not exaggerating. For decades, the problem wasn’t that renewables didn’t grow fast enough — they did. The problem was that electricity demand grew faster. Every new solar farm or wind park was like trying to fill a leaky bucket. But in 2025, the maths finally shifted: clean energy growth kept pace with demand. Half the world has likely passed its fossil-generation peak. The other half might just need a gentle push.

Let’s zoom in on a few nations, because the drama of global energy transition is best told through its regional soap operas. China, for instance, managed to meet all its new electricity demand with clean power. Fossil generation there actually fell by 2%, and emissions dropped by 46 million tonnes. The country still burns a mountain of coal every day, but its renewable surge is rewriting the script. China also led the world in both solar (55%) and wind (82%) growth. Somewhere in Beijing, an engineer is probably high-fiving a policymaker.

India’s performance is equally striking. Its clean generation grew more than three times faster than its electricity demand, cutting coal use by 3% and gas by a whopping 34%. That translated into emissions down by 24 million tonnes. For a country where air quality often makes headlines for all the wrong reasons, this is a hopeful chapter. Meanwhile, across the Pacific, the United States managed a more complicated story. Demand rose 3.6%, and renewables covered about 65% of that increase — not bad, but not enough. Coal generation actually went up 17%, though gas fell by 4%. Overall emissions rose by 33 million tonnes, suggesting that America’s green transition still hits red lights at every second intersection.

The European Union’s tale reads like one of those unpredictable summers it’s famous for. Solar generation jumped 24%, but wind fell 8.5%, and hydro took a 17% hit due to droughts. That left the EU leaning back on gas (+14%) and even a smidge of coal (+1%), nudging emissions up by 13 million tonnes. It’s the energy equivalent of making progress at the gym but celebrating with cake afterwards. The irony isn’t lost on anyone.

Beyond these major players, hydro power had a tough year globally, falling 2% because of persistent droughts in places that used to rely on their rivers like clockwork — notably the EU, China, and Brazil. The planet’s once dependable reservoirs seem to be taking spontaneous holidays. Nuclear power, on the other hand, made a quiet comeback, rising 2.5% thanks to output increases in China, South Korea, and Japan. No headlines, no grand declarations — just a steady hum of fission keeping the lights on.

But the real question is what this all means beyond the numbers. Crossing the coal-renewables line is symbolic, yes, but it also hints at a new economic logic. Solar and wind are no longer ‘alternative’ — they’re mainstream, sometimes even cheaper than maintaining old fossil plants. In many regions, building new solar farms now costs less than just keeping coal plants fuelled. The market, it turns out, might be doing what years of climate diplomacy only half-managed: making the clean option the profitable one.

Still, nobody should be popping champagne just yet. The report ends with a sober reminder that this isn’t a finish line but a checkpoint. To actually lock in these gains, global investment in solar, wind, and battery storage needs to accelerate dramatically. The world still consumes roughly two-thirds of its electricity from fossil fuels, and demand is growing as new industries electrify everything from heating to transport. Without massive reinvestment, the next report could easily show the pendulum swinging back.

There’s also the tricky matter of grid stability. Sunshine and breezes are wonderful, but they don’t always turn up on schedule. Countries leading the transition — like Germany, Australia, and Spain — are already grappling with overproduction on some days and shortages on others. Battery storage, flexible demand, and smarter grids will decide whether the renewable revolution keeps its rhythm or starts skipping beats.

Another wrinkle is political will. Clean energy booms are fragile things, easily disrupted by elections, lobbyists, or sudden ideological detours. In the United States, for example, state-level initiatives have driven much of the progress, but federal politics still swings between climate enthusiasm and fossil nostalgia depending on who’s at the podium. In Europe, debates over nuclear energy and grid interconnection keep policymakers busy while droughts quietly mess with hydro output. And in parts of Asia, balancing growth with decarbonisation remains a daily juggling act.

Yet despite all this, the symbolism of 2025 matters. It marks the first year that the world can genuinely say renewables aren’t just growing — they’re winning. That means the old argument that ‘green energy can’t keep up’ no longer holds water. It’s keeping up, and in many places, overtaking. The excuses are running out faster than the coal stockpiles.

This also has cultural weight. The idea of progress has long been tied to smokestacks, turbines, and the faint smell of diesel. But a world powered mostly by the invisible — sunbeams, wind gusts, electrons flowing silently through wires — represents a subtle shift in the human psyche. Progress is becoming quieter, cleaner, and a bit more elegant. The drama is still there, but now it’s in the data charts rather than the skyline.

Economically, this could prove to be the century’s greatest arbitrage — trading finite, volatile commodities for infinite, free inputs. The cost curves of renewables are still falling, while fossil fuel markets wobble like caffeine-deprived traders. If this momentum continues, the energy transition could turn from an environmental crusade into a cold-blooded business decision: why burn something you have to pay for when you can harvest something that arrives every morning?

Still, the romanticism of a renewable dawn shouldn’t blind anyone to the scale of what’s left to do. Transmission lines, storage infrastructure, workforce retraining — all these boring details will make or break the clean energy story. But 2025’s data shows the direction is now irreversible. You can’t un-cross a line like this one. Coal had a century-long run, lighting cities, fuelling factories, and shaping empires. It also warmed the planet a bit too enthusiastically. Now, it’s slowly being retired — not by decree, but by better technology.

And perhaps that’s the most satisfying twist. The clean energy revolution isn’t happening because of guilt or moral superiority. It’s happening because it works. Because solar panels don’t argue, wind turbines don’t strike, and the sun never sends a bill. The world finally realised that saving the planet can also save money, and that’s the kind of motivation no species ever resisted.

So here’s to 2025, the year the world’s power mix flipped. A year when coal’s long reign began to fade under the steady glare of photovoltaic panels. A year when humanity’s most reliable star became its largest energy supplier. Somewhere, in a dusty corner of an old coal plant, a control room clock is still ticking. But the future, for once, is running on sunlight.