Clean power will soon produce half of the world's electricity
Fast growing solar power surged 29% in 2024
41% of electricity generation globally now comes from clean energy sources—solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear.
Need-to-Know: The world is on its way to getting half of its electricity from clean energy.
The accelerating shift to clean energy is being driven by the rapid growth of low-cost solar and wind, according to Ember’s sixth annual Global Electricity Review.
Eighty countries generated more than 50% of their electricity from clean sources in 2024, including 47 countries that reached more than 75%.
After decades of investment, global solar power capacity reached one Terawatt in 2022. By the end of last year, solar capacity had doubled, reaching two terawatts. (The power capacity of global electricity generation from all sources is just over 10 terawatts.)
Solar generation has maintained its high growth rate, doubling in the last three years, including 29% growth in 2024. Solar has added more new electricity capacity than any other source.
AI, data centres, electric vehicles, and heat pumps are driving up electricity demand. The increasing number and intensity of heat waves are also driving up energy use in cooling and air conditioning.
Need-to-Know: Coal is dying, gas is next
Despite all that, we’re close to a breakthrough: Clean power is set to grow faster than demand, marking the start of a permanent decline in using coal and gas to generate electricity.
In the U.S., wind and solar together generate more electricity than coal. Coal power has been in decline for over a decade, and that will continue simply due to economics.
Solar and wind produced 17% of U.S. electricity in 2024, a bit lower than China’s 18%.
China’s electricity from coal peaked in 2024 and is expected to decline as more wind and solar come online. China has more solar energy than the rest of the world combined.
India is following a similar path, but is a few years behind.
In the developing world, solar power's low cost and fast construction make it the fastest and cheapest way to get electricity to homes and businesses. Pakistan imported 17 gigawatts of solar panels in 2024, double the amount imported the year before. (Canada has a mere 6.1 gigawatts installed after two decades.)
Need-to-Know: Low-cost solar is lighting up the world
Pakistan's households and businesses are fed up with high prices from big power generators and an unreliable grid. A similar solar revolution is happening in Africa and South America.
Virtually all of the solar panels being imported are made in China. As I wrote in a previous post:
Solar manufacturers, mainly in China, are now capable of producing 350 to 500 nuclear-reactor’s worth of cheap solar panels per year (1000 GW to 1500 GW). Yes, per year. (It takes an average of 10 years to build an actual nuclear reactor.)
—1000 Nuclear Reactors: That's how much solar and wind electricity could be plugged in.
With solar replacing coal and gas power generation, we have avoided adding 1.68 billion tons of CO2 into our already overheated atmosphere, according to Ember. That’s a very hopeful development.
Until next time. Be well.
Stephen