Renewables met rise in global energy demand for first time ever, report shows

When it comes to satisfying skyrocketing energy demand caused by forthcoming data centers and increasing electrification, some US lawmakers have doubted that solar and wind power are up to the job. But during the first half of this year, renewable energy met—and exceeded—the increase in energy demand globally for the first time ever.

The milestone was reflected in a report from Ember, an energy think tank, released earlier this month, which relies on data from 88 countries that make up 93% of global energy demand. In the same vein, renewable energy generation also overtook coal generation “for the first time on record,” leading to lower emissions in some countries.

“We are greedy people, and we use more and more electricity. And if you need more fossil [fuels] to meet this growth, you will generate more emissions,” one of the report’s authors, Ember Senior Electricity Analyst Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, told Tech Brew. “But if you meet new demand with clean sources, you stop adding—and maybe you start cutting down—emissions.”

Power sector emissions fell slightly in both China and India, but Wiatros-Motyka said that the renewables fulfilling new demand and overtaking coal globally were “driven by huge changes in China.” The country added 55% of the world’s new solar generation, the report said, and continued to bring down solar panel pricing, resulting in steady exports of the technology to other countries.

And as The Washington Post reported earlier this year, China’s solar dominance is the result of government policies supportive of green tech. Without policy support and strategy, Wiatros-Motyka said, it’s difficult for renewable sources to outpace coal. Such is the case in the US, where renewable energy growth did not meet new demand, coal production increased and even replaced natural gas in some areas, and emissions rose, the report showed.

“Different countries move with different speeds,” Wiatros-Motyka said. “It takes time to have the right policy, to plan for it, to integrate sources.”

And policy around renewables has been disjointed in the US: Just a few years after the Biden administration granted subsidies for solar and wind energy generation and investment under the Inflation Reduction Act, the current administration piloted the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which phased them out.

Still, outside the US, renewables are setting global records.

“We have lots of news now of doom and gloom,” Wiatros-Motyka said. “This is something to celebrate.”