The BBC News Channel alerted us to a fascinating interim report by Energy think-tank Ember, on October 7, 2025. This British public interest company had recently published an update of its 2024 sixth annual review. Their July 2025 findings confirm the trend of green energy and batteries overtaking coal as the global leader in electricity production, with each one depending on the other.
Green Energy and Batteries Winning in 2024
The overwhelming majority of green wind and solar energy generates during daytime. This will continue until we have a global energy grid, which seems unlikely at this stage. In the interim, batteries are the best way to store renewable green energy for night time use.
Ember’s latest annual review confirms that renewables, led by solar, “helped push clean power past 40% of global electricity in 2024”. Although “heatwave-related demand spikes led to a small increase in fossil fuel generation.”
This data represents 88 countries who between them generated 93% of global electricity at the time. We are at a tipping point, the Ember report observed, with green energy and batteries overtaking coal.
Battery storage will reduce reliance on fossil fuel power in the coming years, even in a world of faster demand growth. Dynamics in the world’s largest emerging economies will play a crucial role in this, as Ember suggests.
This Crucial Role Continues as the West Lags
The BBC news channel confirms that renewable energy actually overtook coal as the world’s leading energy resource, in the first half of 2025. Ember has ascribed this to renewable solar and wind fully absorbing global demand growth, and helping drive a slight decline in coal and gas generation.
However, and this is the crucial point, the richer nations – including USA and Europe – actually increased their reliance on fossil fuel during the first half of 2025. So we can’t actually speak of green energy and batteries overtaking coal universally at this point in time.
The BBC suggests that electricity demand in the USA grew faster than green energy production. While in Europe, “months of weak wind and hydro-power performance led to a rise in coal and gas generation”. We shall continue to watch these trends with interest.
More Information
High Fossil Fuel Use Blocking Renewables
Coping With Renewable Energy Doldrums
Preview Image: Shifting Patterns in Energy Consumption
