Zero-Emissions Electricity Surpasses 40% of World Electricity

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Solar and wind power have been dominating new power installations all around the world. Renewables accounted for 92.5% of new power capacity globally in 2024, a stunning achievement, even if it’s been expected for the past decade.

All of that new power capacity from clean, renewable energy is also gradually pushing up the share of our electricity that’s produced from renewables. As a result, zero-emissions electricity sources reached a new milestone recently. Energy think tank Ember recently reported that the world got 40.9% of its electricity from zero-emissions sources last year. (Note that this includes electricity from nuclear power plants.)

Hydropower is still the largest individual source of electricity from these zero-emissions players. It provided 14% of the world’s electricity in 2024. Nuclear power was still second, providing 9% of the world’s electricity. However, wind and solar power are now right behind these two zero-emissions pioneers. Wind power provided 8% of global electricity, and solar power provided 7% of global electricity.

As noted above, renewables accounted for 92.5% of new power capacity in 2024, and 96.6% of that was from solar (77.3%) and wind (19.3%). So, we can expect them to climb ahead of nuclear power very soon, and hydropower before long, too.

“The world reached a new milestone as low-carbon sources — renewables and nuclear — provided 40.9% of the world’s electricity generation in 2024, passing the 40% mark for the first time since the 1940s,” Ember wrote in introducing its new report on the matter. “Renewables were the main driver of overall clean growth, adding a record 858 TWh in 2024, 49% more than the previous high in 2022. Solar was the largest contributor for the third year running, adding 474 TWh to reach a share of 6.9%. Solar was the fastest-growing power source (+29%) for the 20th year in a row. Solar electricity has doubled in just three years, providing more than 2,000 TWh of electricity in 2024. Wind generation also grew to 8.1% of global electricity, while hydro’s share remained steady at 14% – the single largest renewable source.”

Really, we can — rightly — emphasize renewables, or zero-emissions electricity sources, as a whole, but the growth story is all about solar. “Solar power has become the engine of the global energy transition,” said Phil MacDonald, Ember’s managing director. “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.”

The Global Electricity Review — Ember’s 6th annual edition — is based on country-by-country data. Ember also published an “open dataset on electricity generation in 2024, covering 88 countries that account for 93% of global electricity demand, as well as historical data for 215 countries” alongside the report.

As with seemingly all things cleantech, China is far and away the leader of solar growth globally. Also, though, in this case, India is a major market driver. “More than half of the increase in solar generation in 2024 was in China, with China’s clean generation growth meeting 81% of its demand increase in 2024,” Ember writes. “India’s solar capacity additions in 2024 doubled compared to 2023. These two countries are at the forefront of the drive to clean power and will help tip the balance towards a decline in fossil generation at a global level.”

Overall, though, the story is what we’ve been reporting for more than 15 years on CleanTechnica — cleantech like solar power and wind power is growing incredibly fast and will eventually take over their respective markets. “Cleantech, not fossil fuels, is now the driving force of economic development,” MacDonald concluded. “The era of fossil growth is coming to an end, even in a world of fast-rising demand.” Indeed.