Renewables Overtake Coal as World’s Top Power Source for First Time in Over a Century
For more than a hundred years, coal has been the backbone of global electricity generation. From Thomas Edison’s first power plant in Lower Manhattan to the industrial rise of China and India, the black rock powered economies, lit cities, and fueled wars. But in 2025, that century-long reign came to an end.
According to Ember’s Global Electricity Review 2026, published ahead of Earth Day, renewable energy sources — led by solar and wind — accounted for 33.8 percent of global electricity last year, while coal slipped to 33 percent. It is the first time since 1919, when the global grid was still largely dependent on hydropower, that coal has not been the leading source of electricity.
The shift is not just symbolic. It reflects a fundamental transformation in the economics and technology of power generation. Solar module prices have fallen by roughly 75 percent per decade for over 40 years — a trend known as Swanson’s Law — and now cost about 10 cents per watt. Meanwhile, battery storage costs dropped 45 percent in 2025 alone, making it possible for solar farms to deliver round-the-clock electricity at prices that undercut new natural gas plants.
“We are witnessing the end of the coal era,” said Małgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, senior electricity analyst at Ember, in a statement. “Clean electricity is not just the moral choice; it is now the cheapest choice, and it is winning in the marketplace.”
China, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, has been the engine behind this shift. Chinese factories now produce roughly 80 percent of global solar panels, and the country’s aggressive build-out of solar and wind capacity allowed it to cut fossil fuel generation by 0.9 percent in 2025 — its first decline since 2015 — even as electricity demand rose 5 percent. India also saw fossil fuel generation drop by 3.3 percent while renewables grew 24 percent year-over-year.
Yet the transition is far from complete. Global power-sector emissions in 2025 were nearly identical to 2024’s record highs. Coal consumption remains enormous — about 8.8 billion tonnes in 2024, per the International Energy Agency — and China approved more than 40 gigawatts of new coal capacity in just the first three quarters of last year. In many regions, coal plants are increasingly relegated to backup roles, but they still burn when called upon.
The United States is at risk of falling behind. The Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended the residential solar tax credit in December and tightened rules for commercial projects. Rhodium Group projects that U.S. clean capacity additions through 2035 could be cut by more than half. But global investment in energy transition hit a record $2.3 trillion in 2025, up 8 percent from 2024, with China alone spending roughly $800 billion. Even if Washington slows down, the rest of the world is racing ahead.
Geopolitical events are accelerating the shift. The U.S.-Iran war has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting a quarter of seaborne oil and a fifth of global LNG. In March, global solar generation grew 14 percent year-over-year, saving European buyers an estimated $3.5 billion in gas costs alone. Countries that a decade ago would have responded to an oil crisis by drilling more are now building solar farms and battery plants at record speed.
Artificial intelligence poses a wild card. The IEA estimates global data-center electricity use rose 17 percent in 2025, with AI-specific demand growing even faster. In the U.S., natural gas is currently the largest single source of new data-center supply, and could overwhelm clean-power gains if not managed carefully.
Still, the trajectory is clear. For 21 consecutive years, solar has been the fastest-growing electricity source on Earth. Solar alone covered 75 percent of the rise in global electricity demand in 2025, and combined wind and solar met 99 percent of that growth. Fossil fuel generation fell for only the fifth time this century.
“This is the beginning of real decarbonization, not the end,” said Dave Jones, Ember’s director of global insights. “Coal’s share is shrinking, and the economics of renewables are so strong that even policy headwinds cannot stop the momentum entirely. The question now is speed — and speed is a matter of choice.”
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