Global Electricity Insights

In 2025, clean power met all global electricity demand growth for the first time since the pandemic, as China's fossil generation plateaued. Solar power is the primary driver of this shift, and the deployment of battery storage is increasingly enabling solar to displace fossil fuels during non-daylight hours. India is expected to follow a less coal-reliant path than China due to lower energy intensity and the maturity of low-cost clean technologies.

• In 2025, global fossil fuel growth in the power sector ceased entirely, with clean sources meeting 100% of electricity demand growth. Solar power alone provided 75% of this increase.
• China's reduction in fossil generation has been the primary factor in bringing global fossil generation to a plateau. Between 2018 and 2025, China added 1,145 TWh of fossil generation, a volume more than four times larger than India's increase of 250 TWh.
• India is projected to peak its coal generation at less than one-third of China's 2024 peak. This is attributed to a more service-sector focused economy with lower electricity demand per capita and the fact that solar and battery storage are now cheaper than new coal power in India.
• Battery storage is becoming a critical flexibility tool to shift solar generation to non-sunny hours. In 2025, global battery storage capacity additions reached approximately 250 GWh, a 46% year-on-year increase, with battery pack prices falling to a record low of USD 70/kWh.
• The expansion of clean electricity is facilitating decarbonisation in other sectors, particularly transport. In 2025, the global electric vehicle (EV) fleet displaced 1.8 million barrels per day of oil demand, avoiding approximately 80 million tonnes of CO2e emissions annually.
• Many countries with the highest potential for solar irradiation still have low deployment. For example, Egypt receives more than twice the sunlight of the Netherlands but generates only 4% as much solar per capita (67 kWh compared to 1,553 kWh in the Netherlands).

APA

Ember (2026). Global Electricity Insights. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/global-electricity-insights/

Chicago

Ember. Global Electricity Insights. 2026. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/global-electricity-insights/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=Global Electricity Insights |date=21 April 2026 |url=https://ember-energy.org/chapter/global-electricity-insights/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2026global, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{Global Electricity Insights}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2026}, month = apr, url = {https://ember-energy.org/chapter/global-electricity-insights/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }