Renewables now making more power than coal

A global think tank has hailed new figures showing that renewable energy has, for the first time, overtaken coal as the world's leading source of electricity as a "crucial turning point", with China being one of the countries whose energy generation behavior has helped tip the balance.

According to figures from the Ember organization, in the first half of this year, renewables came into their own, with the group's senior analyst, Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, saying this "marks the beginning of a shift where clean power is keeping pace with demand growth".

China has maintained its status as the world's leading renewable energy generator, increasing its wind and solar capacity by more than the rest of the world put together, which means it has managed to stay ahead of rising demand for electricity and contribute to a 2 percent fall in fossil fuel generation.

India also added a significant amount of renewable capacity, meaning there was less need for gas and oil. But at the same time, the United States and the European Union's use of fossil fuels for electricity generation rose.

Reuters reported the EU's change of behavior came after two years of significantly less reliance on fossil fuels, but was forced because of a marked drop in productivity from wind farms and hydro dams in the first part of the year.

One of the main drivers of the global rebalancing has been the continuous expansion, year-on-year, of solar power, particularly in lower income countries, which has coincided with the price of solar power generating facilities tumbling.

For three years in a row, solar has been the biggest source of new electricity, meeting 83 percent of increased demand, according to the latest data, and with more than half of that solar energy coming from less affluent countries, where the cost and practicalities of maintaining a conventional energy grid could be more challenging.

In 2024, Pakistan imported double the number of solar panels it did the year before, equal to around one-third of its current electricity generating capacity. And there has also been enthusiastic uptake across Africa, most notably in Algeria, where solar panel imports rose 33-fold.

In addition to its solar panel industry, China also continues to lead the world in electric vehicle and battery exports and it is these industries that could make it an increasingly important player in the global energy supply market for many years to come, as fossil fuel supplies begin to run down.

"Clean energy exports is hardware, which once a country has bought it, will generate electricity for a decade or two to come," Greg Jackson, CEO of the United Kingdom's largest energy retailer, Octopus Energy, told Bloomberg. "Whereas with gas, the day you buy it, you use it, it's gone forever."