The world’s wind and solar farms have generated more electricity than coal-fired power plants for the first time this year, a milestone that signals a historic shift in the global energy landscape, according to new research by the climate thinktank Ember.
In the first six months of 2025, renewable energy sources outpaced the world’s growing appetite for electricity, leading to a modest decline in coal and gas consumption, Ember’s report found. The world produced nearly one-third more solar power compared with the same period in 2024, meeting 83% of the global increase in electricity demand, while wind generation rose by just over 7%, allowing renewables to overtake fossil fuels for the first time.
Małgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, senior electricity analyst at Ember and the report’s lead author, called the milestone “a crucial turning point.” She said, “Solar and wind are now growing fast enough to meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity. This marks the beginning of a shift where clean power is keeping pace with demand growth.”
China and India drove much of the global surge in renewable generation, in contrast to the United States and Europe, where reliance on fossil fuels increased. Ember’s analysis shows that China added more renewable capacity than the rest of the world combined, leading to a 2% drop in fossil fuel use in the first half of 2025. India’s renewables output grew more than three times faster than its electricity demand, prompting a 3.1% fall in coal use and a sharp 34% drop in gas consumption.
In contrast, U.S. demand for electricity rose faster than its renewable capacity, leading to a 17% increase in coal generation during the same period. In Europe, modest demand growth and unfavorable weather conditions reduced wind and hydropower output, forcing gas and coal generation up 14% and 1.1%, respectively, despite record growth in solar.
The findings echo a separate report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), which projects that global renewable capacity will more than double by 2030, with solar power accounting for around 80% of new clean energy additions.
“The growth in global renewable capacity in the coming years will be dominated by solar PV,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director. “But wind, hydropower, bioenergy, and geothermal will all play important roles too.”
The IEA expects China to remain the world’s largest renewable growth market, with India emerging as the second largest over the next decade. Rapid solar expansion is also forecast in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and several Southeast Asian nations as these economies push to diversify their energy mix.
Ember’s report underscores the pace at which clean energy is transforming the world’s power systems. While fossil fuels still provide the majority of global electricity, the symbolic overtaking of coal by wind and solar highlights the accelerating momentum of the energy transition — one that could define the global economy for decades to come.
