For the first time in more than 100 years, renewable energy sources produced more electricity worldwide than coal in 2025 — a milestone that analysts are calling a structural turning point in the global energy transition. According to the seventh edition of the Global Electricity Review, published on 21 April by Ember, a British energy think tank, renewables accounted for 33.8% of global electricity generation last year, edging ahead of coal, which fell to 33% — its lowest share in recorded modern history. The last time renewables held such a lead was briefly around 1919, when large hydroelectric dams came online in the aftermath of the First World War.

The shift has been driven above all by explosive growth in solar power, which saw a 30% year-on-year increase in 2025 and now accounts for 8.7% of global electricity — nearly double its 4.6% share in 2022. Wind energy also contributed, though more modestly. Crucially, renewables not only expanded their own share but absorbed the entirety of rising electricity demand, meaning no new coal or gas plants were needed to meet growth. Solar alone covered 75% of the increase in global electricity demand last year, and its growth was 18 times greater than that of gas — the only fossil fuel that still registered any increase at all.

Ember's analysts stress that this milestone is unlikely to be reversed. Coal's share of global electricity has fallen steadily from 39% in 2015 to 33% in 2025, while renewables rose from 23% to 34% over the same period. Nicolas Fulghum, one of the report's authors, describes the crossover as