Last year over 12,609 terawatt-hours of electricity was generated using clean energy, solar was the fastest growing electricity source still dwarfed by hydro power.
Despite not burning fossil fuels to generate the electricity, carbon dioxide emissions have risen to an all time high which warm the planet while electricity demand also increased due to hotter weather.
In 2024 for the first time since the 1940s the share of clean energy crossed the 40% threshold, 40.9% to be exact according to think tank Ember.
In the last three years the amount of electricity generated by solar power doubled.
Phil MacDonald the managing director of Ember said “Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition”. For the last 20 consecutive years solar power has been the world’s fastest growing energy source.
“Amid the noise, it’s essential to focus on the real signal. Hotter weather drove the fossil generation increase in 2024, but we’re very unlikely to see a similar jump in 2025.”
Hydro accounted for 14.3% of global electricity, behind that was nuclear at 9% with wind and solar accounting respectively for 8.1% and 6.9% of electricity. Other renewables like bioenergy, geothermal and tidal represented less than 3% of global electricity.
Clean Energy which was responsible for 12,609 terawatt-hours grew 9.6% year-over-year.
“Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition. 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,” Phil MacDonald Ember managing director said in a statement.
Globally, the demand for electricity increased 4% year-over-year in 2024 coming in at 30,856 TWh.
While hot weather played a role, artificial intelligence, data centers, electric vehicles and heat pumps also did in the rise of demand with three quarters of demand in 2024 being met by clean energy.
In a different report, the European Copernicus climate service said March 2025 was the second hottest on record.
China continues to dominate the growth of solar with half of it taking place there while India doubled it’s solar capacity between 2023 and 2024.
