The reason renewable energy is producing more power than ever is simple: The world is building staggering amounts of new clean capacity. Most of this is happening in China, and the vast majority of what’s being built is solar power.
In 2024 alone, 553 GW of solar panels were installed worldwide; the sun-powered resource is growing so fast that it keeps forcing industry analysts to revise their forecasts upward.
So, why aren’t energy-related emissions falling? In part because global electricity use is surging.
Power demand rose by 4.3% last year, per the IEA, nearly double the average annual growth rate over the past decade. And while renewable energy’s slice of the electricity-production pie is bigger than ever, the overall pie itself is growing.
The net effect: Power plants ultimately burned through 1% more coal, gas, and oil last year than they did in 2023, even though the global share of electricity produced by fossil fuels actually declined.
Air conditioning was a key driver of this uptick in demand, thanks to a devastating feedback loop: As emissions from burning fossil fuels push global temperatures to record heights, people use more AC — in turn creating more demand for electricity that is still produced using mostly fossil fuels. Data centers and other industrial customers are also boosting demand.
The only way to meet the urgent need for more power and bring down emissions at the same time is to build renewable energy — solar, wind, batteries, or hydropower and nuclear — faster than even last year’s record-setting pace.
This article was originally published on Energy Network and republished here, with permission, under a Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 license. See our third-party content disclaimer.
