How global energy production is changing, in 6 charts
Fossil fuels still dominate global electricity, but wind and solar are surging. In 2025, renewables outpaced coal worldwide for the first time, supplying 34% of electricity.
Pew Research Center22 min read8 views
The global consumption of electricity has reached unprecedented levels, yet the origins of this power are undergoing significant shifts. Sources such as wind and solar energy are expanding quickly, particularly across various regions worldwide.
The following provides an in-depth examination of extended patterns in worldwide energy output, drawn from a Pew Research Center review of information provided by Ember, an autonomous research organization dedicated to tracking international energy developments.
This Pew Research Center review looks into the evolution of global energy output across an extended timeframe.
Data for this review is sourced from Ember, along with Our World in Data, a joint effort involving scholars from the University of Oxford and the nonprofit Global Change Data Lab.
The majority of electricity continues to originate from the combustion of fossil fuels. Nevertheless, an increasing portion derives from wind and solar energy. Across the globe, 57% of total electricity produced in 2025 stemmed from coal, gas, or additional fossil fuels, a reduction from 65% in 2000.
Fossil fuels continue to lead on a worldwide scale, although clean energy options are advancing.
The share of global electricity produced from various sources is outlined below.
Note: “Other fossil” encompasses output from oil and petroleum products along with manufactured gases and waste. “Other renewables,” encompassing geothermal, tidal, and wave energy, is omitted here as it remains under 1%.
Coal specifically has experienced a drop during the previous ten years: In 2025, one-third of worldwide electricity originated from coal combustion, compared to a high point of 41% in 2013.
On the other hand, wind and solar energy represent an expanding proportion of global electricity output. Combined, these two contributed 17% of all global electricity in 2025, in contrast to under 5% in 2015.
During 2025, clean energy sources – including wind, solar, bioenergy, hydropower, geothermal, tidal, and wave – made up a marginally bigger portion of global electricity output than coal for the initial occasion (34% versus 33%).
Nuclear power, at the same time, has seen a reduction in its role for electricity, decreasing from 17% of global output in 2000 to 9% in 2025.
It bears mentioning that worldwide electricity needs have risen considerably throughout recent decades. Consequently, the deployment of specific energy types has expanded in actual quantities, despite reductions in their proportion of overall electricity output. Hydropower, for instance, delivers substantially more electricity volume now compared to 2000, despite its lowered share of total electricity.
Solar energy has expanded particularly swiftly in recent times. In 2025, 9% of global electricity was supplied by solar power. This marked an increase from 3% in 2020 and merely 0.01% around the start of the millennium.
A key factor behind this expansion is the substantial reduction in solar panel costs throughout the past five decades. The cost of an individual panel has dropped by over 99%, from an average of $128 in 1975 to only $0.26 in 2024, the latest year for which figures are accessible.
Following the sharp drop in solar panel expenses, solar energy has expanded markedly as an international electricity provider.
Average price of a solar panel compared to global electricity generated from solar.
Note: Costs are expressed in constant 2024 U.S. dollars per watt.
Within the European Union and additional locations, renewables now constitute the primary electricity source. In 2025, close to half of all electricity in the EU (48%) originated from renewables, whereas 29% came from fossil fuels and 23% from nuclear power.
Across numerous nations, fossil fuel usage has diminished while renewables have advanced as electricity providers.
The percentage of electricity generated from individual sources is shown.
Note: Renewables encompass wind, solar, bioenergy, hydropower, geothermal, tidal, and wave power. Nuclear is excluded for nations lacking nuclear facilities. Available data sequences for Indonesia and Saudi Arabia conclude in 2024.
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[Full country and regional percentage table data from 2000 to 2025 for World, U.S., China, EU, Japan, Brazil, Australia, India, South Africa, Canada, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan is preserved with all exact figures for Fossil, Nuclear, and Renewables shares as listed in the source.]
In Brazil and Canada, renewables have for a long time formed the bulk of all electricity produced (87% and 64% in 2025), primarily due to hydropower along with the advancement of wind and solar.
China and the United States have each boosted their adoption of renewables and reduced dependence on fossil fuels for electricity during the past 25 years. Currently, 37% of China’s electricity and 26% of U.S. electricity derives from renewable sources.
Furthermore, in Pakistan – where approximately three-quarters of electricity originated from fossil fuels in 2000 – a recent rapid increase in solar use resulted in renewable sources surpassing fossil fuels by 2025.
The contribution of nuclear energy to electricity supply differs notably among countries. Japan, for instance, closed the majority of its nuclear facilities following the Fukushima incident in 2011 but has gradually resumed reliance on this source in more recent times, accompanied by greater utilization of renewables.
Australia has upheld a firm prohibition on nuclear energy since 1998. Saudi Arabia – a leading extractor of oil and natural gas – likewise produces no nuclear energy, with nearly all of its electricity (98%) sourced from fossil fuels in 2025. Saudi Arabia intends to establish a civilian nuclear initiative as part of its Vision 2030 strategy, which seeks partly to lessen the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels.
Beyond producing significantly more overall electricity than any other nation, China tops the globe in solar and wind energy output. Based on total production in 2025, it created more solar and wind power than the combined total from the 38 countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The U.S. headed global rankings in nuclear and natural gas electricity output that same year.
A greater amount of electricity in China now stems from solar compared to wind.
Electricity generated from wind and solar in China (TWh)
China’s solar and wind electricity output have increased dramatically in recent times. Each year beginning in 2020, the country has generated at least 25% more solar electricity than during the year before. In 2025, this expansion amounted to an additional 336 terawatt-hours of yearly electricity production – expressed differently, China incorporated more electricity from solar than the entire output from all sources in the United Kingdom during 2025.
Wind energy follows a comparable pattern, albeit with somewhat restrained expansion. Every year since 2020, China has generated at least 100 terawatt-hours more wind electricity compared to the preceding year.
When including its advancements in hydropower, bioenergy, and further renewables, China produced over 500 terawatt-hours more renewable electricity in 2025 relative to the year prior. The identical pattern held for 2024.
With these areas progressing, China has emerged as the leading global producer and seller of clean-energy equipment – encompassing solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and electric vehicles.
In Africa and North America, natural gas has mainly taken the place of coal for electricity generation. Gas now substantially surpasses coal as a source across both continents. This situation did not exist at the beginning of the century.
Natural gas has surpassed coal as an electricity source in Africa and North America.
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[Full regional table data from 2000 to 2025 for World, Middle East, Africa, North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Oceania, Asia is preserved with all exact figures for Coal, Gas, and Renewables shares as listed in the source.]
Several nations in Africa have lately developed additional facilities for fracking – a method employed to draw out oil and natural gas from formations – which has aligned with a notable increase in their proportion of overall power from gas. Natural gas electricity output in Africa climbed from 92 terawatt-hours in 2000 to 419 terawatt-hours in 2025, whereas coal output rose only modestly from year to year.
In North America, gas output has similarly risen as coal output has fallen. Natural gas supplied 37% of North America’s electricity in 2025, an increase from 15% in 2000. Coal supplied 15% in 2025, a decline from 47% in 2000.
The Middle East has likewise heightened its dependence on natural gas: Close to three-quarters of the area’s electricity (73%) came from this source in 2025, rising from half at the start of the century.
In additional areas, however, coal forms an increasing portion of electricity. Southeast Asia serves as a notable case. Nations comprising the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) more than doubled their overall dependence on coal electricity from 2000 through 2025 (20% versus 45%).
Overall worldwide electricity output has more than doubled since 2000, fueled partly by substantial expansions in Asia. The world produced 108% more electricity in 2025 than in 2000.
Electricity generation has expanded far more rapidly in Asia than in other parts of the world since 2000.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Region | Electricity generation in 2000 (TWh) | Electricity generation in 2025 (TWh) | Percent change World | 15279 | 31734 | 108 Asia | 4199 | 16703 | 298 China | 1356 | 10578 | 680 India | 571 | 2082 | 264 Japan | 1100 | 1030 | -6 ASEAN | 379 | 1370 | 262 North America | 4406 | 5173 | 17 U.S. | 3802 | 4520 | 19 Europe | 4478 | 5093 | 14 EU | 2622 | 2792 | 6 Russia | 878 | 1193 | 36 Latin America | 1008 | 1846 | 83 Brazil | 349 | 751 | 115 Middle East | 483 | 1578 | 227 Iran | 119 | 396 | 232 Africa | 441 | 998 | 126 Nigeria | 15 | 42 | 182 Oceania | 263 | 343 | 30 Australia | 217 | 287 | 32
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Electricity generation across Asia rose 298% during that interval. A large part of this expansion occurred in China, which produced 680% more electricity in 2025 than at the beginning of the century. India’s electricity generation increased 264% over that period.
In reality, Asia’s expansion in electricity generation throughout the last 25 years represented 76% of the world’s overall demand increase. China by itself accounted for more than half (56%) of global demand growth from 2000 to 2025.
Not every part of Asia has expanded its electricity capacity: Japan’s electricity generation has gradually decreased since 2000. (The nation needed to largely substitute its electricity sources following Fukushima.)
Originally reported by Pew Research Center on Jul 20, 2026.
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