In 2025 solar photovoltaics met more than 25% of the world's new demand for energy (including in power generation and transport), ahead of natural gas at 17%, according to the International Energy Agency's annual "Global Energy Review" published in April 2026.
Annual solar generation surged by 30% in 2025, from 2,143 to 2,778 terawatt-hours (TWh). Newly installed capacity accounted for nearly all of the increase. Wind power rose from 2,510TWh to 2,715TWh. Together with hydropower, geothermal and other technologies, renewables generated nearly 11,000TWh of electricity, or 34% of the worldwide total in 2025—exceeding coal (33%) for the first time in over a century, according to Ember, a research firm. For only the fourth time this century, fossil fuels produced less power than the year before. For the first time ever, new renewables generation exceeded the rise in global electricity demand.
The "levelised" cost of solar power, which combines capital and operating cost (though does not account for the "system costs" imposed by renewables' intermittency), has plunged by around 90% since 2010. It is now below that for coal generation in India even with battery storage. Onshore wind power is cheaper still.
In a fragmenting world, clean power offers some energy security. Once installed, solar panels and wind turbines work regardless of geopolitical turmoil, albeit not regardless of the weather. After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Germany's earlier clean-energy investments spared it €25bn ($26bn) in gas imports, roughly equivalent to its annual import bill for the fuel in previous years.
The amount of solar generation added in 2025 surpassed that of electricity produced by burning all the liquefied natural gas the Gulf exported that year.
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