Solar power drives a renewables inflection point

Global electricity generation from renewables edged past coal in 2025, per a new analysis by Ember, a clean energy think tank.

Why it matters: The inflection point with renewables — mostly hydro, solar, wind and bioenergy — helped to keep CO2 emissions from power essentially flat even as consumption rose, it found.

State of play: A separate report from the International Energy Agency reached a similar conclusion.

It showed coal, long the world’s largest power source, barely hanging onto the title last year.

Coal and renewables both had about a 34% share, with the former an inch ahead, IEA found.

Both reports show solar’s growth did lots of heavy lifting in 2025, even though it remains a small share of total global generation (8.7% last year by Ember’s tally).

It “cemented its role as the dominant driver of change,” meeting three-fourths of last year’s demand rise, Ember finds.

“Solar’s rise was 18 times larger than that of gas,” per Ember.

Coal-fired generation rose very slightly last year, IEA notes, though Ember’s analysis found a slight dip.

As originally published on axis.com