“Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition,” Phil MacDonald, managing director of Ember, said in the group’s latest Global Electricity Review. Him saying that is a sign of a transformative milestone: clean energy sources delivered more than 40% of electricity globally in 2024, a rate not seen since the 1940s. This, driven in part by stunning growth in solar and wind power, is a breakthrough in the global battle against climate change, and the race to decarbonize the world’s power systems.
Solar energy has been the fastest-growing source of power for a record 20 straight years, increasing its capacity every three years since 2012. For 2024, solar generation jumped 474 terawatt-hours (TWh), a record 29% increase compared to the previous year. According to Ember’s analysis, that growth helped solar fill 40% of the increase in electricity demand during the year. Solar now makes up nearly 7% of global electricity, with an installed capacity worldwide of over 2,000 TWh.
Wind power also grew, hitting 8.1 percent of global electricity, while hydroelectricity the leading source of renewables held steady at 14 percent. Collectively, these clean technologies propelled renewables and nuclear energy to account for 40.9 percent of global electricity, a milestone in the transformation of the global energy landscape. But as MacDonald pointed out, “Paired with battery storage, solar is set to be an unstoppable force. “As the fastest-growing and largest source of new electricity, it is critical in meeting the world’s ever-increasing demand for electricity.”
These improvements remain the exception as the transition to clean energy continues to be a struggle. Electricity demand around the world grew by 4% this year, partly due to record-breaking heatwaves that spurred cooling demand. Power-sector CO2 emissions in 2023 rose by 1.6% to a record 14.6 billion tonnes on this demand boom. Fossil fuel generation rose to fill the extra demand, at 149 TWh for coal and 104 TWh for gas, respectively. Fossil fuels dominated the numbers, but clean electricity still did account for 96 percent of demand growth not due to the trend toward higher temperatures, Ember’s report said, underscoring the potential for the clean energy technologies to outpace fossil fuels over the next few years.
The growth paths of emerging economies are of special importance. China, which installed 278 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity in 2024, was responsible for more than half of the world’s new solar and wind capacity. The country’s clean generation accounted for 81% of the amount by which its electricity demand grew, making clear its leadership in renewable energy deployment. India also witnessed impressive growth, with its solar capacity additions more than doubling those in 2023. It places Asia at the heart of the global energy transition, as noted by Professor Xunpeng Shi, president of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies. “The future of the global power system is being shaped in Asia, with China and India at the heart of the energy transition. Their increasing reliance on renewables to power demand growth marks a shift that will redefine the global power sector and accelerate the decline of fossil fuels.” Shi said in a statement.
Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025 from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) further echoed the scale of renewable capacity expansion. Renewables made up 92.5% of all global power expansion in 2024, with solar and wind providing 96.6% of net additions. But the report warned that advances were not enough to meet the global target of tripling installed renewable energy capacity by 2030. To hit this target, renewable capacity needs to grow at a rate of 16.6% per year an acceleration compared to the current growth trajectory.
Renewables are being adopted for reasons of energy and economic competitiveness but differences between regions remain. Asia is in the lead, while Central America and the Caribbean added just 3.2% to the world’s total new capacity in 2024. Closing these gaps will be critical to the process of a fair energy transition. “Renewable energy is powering down the fossil fuel age,” said António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general. “Record-breaking growth is creating jobs, lowering energy bills, and cleaning our air. Renewables renew economies. But the shift to clean energy must be faster and fairer with all countries given the chance to fully benefit from cheap, clean renewable power.”
The price of solar fell over 90% since 2010, allowing new markets to come to life and driving deployment worldwide. For example, in 2024 Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were some of the largest importers of Chinese solar panels. The affordability of solar energy has made it one of the cornerstones of the global energy transition, with Ember forecasting that solar generation will expand by an average of 21% per year up to 2030. Wind is expected to increase at an annual rate of 13% over the same period, adding a total of 8,399 TWh of annual generation by the end of the decade.
These trends have far-reaching implications. With clean energy development increasingly outpacing increasing energy demand, the world can soon enter a new era when fossil fuel generation begins to fall forever. “The global energy transition is no longer a question of if, but how fast,” Ember’s report concludes. The trajectory is clear: Though challenges remain, clean energy is transforming the global power sector and charting a course toward a sustainable and resilient future.
