| World energy
Solar’s share of total power generation reached 8.7% in 2025, almost equalling that of nuclear power, which was estimated to be 8.8%. Wind was the second largest source of renewables growth in 2025, increasing by 8.2% year-on-year.
The Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy estimates a 10% rise in US coal consumption in 2025, with a consequent increase in emissions. The picture shows the J.H. Campbell coal fired power plant, West Olive, Michigan, USA. Along with a number of other US coal units, President Trump has ordered this power plant to keep operating beyond its expected retirement date, citing an energy emergency. Photo by: Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
The Statistical
Review now features new sections tracking behind-the-meter and off-grid solar PV installed capacity, datacentre power demand, and global battery capacity. There is also enhanced data on global hydrogen production.
The authors of the Carbon dioxide emissions per EJ. Source: Energy Institute
Battery growth, both in front of and behind the meter, has accelerated, dominated by China and the USA, with global capacity additions up by 66% year-on-year to 301 GW.
Review believe that the global electricity system has reached a potential tipping point, with fossil fuel
based technologies declining in the power generation sector, one reason being that the installation of batteries-plus-solar is so much faster than fossil plant construction.
Turning to coal, global consumption grew by 0.7% in 2025 – mostly driven by the USA, and that growth in US coal consumption is the main reason that global total carbon dioxide emissions increased in 2025. In fact, the USA is by far the biggest contributor to this. China’s coal consumption was flat year- on-year, depressed by lower demand from the coal-to-power sector, which typically accounts for roughly 60% of China’s total coal consumption. India’s coal demand decelerated to a growth rate of 0.6%. The USA saw a 10% increase in coal consumption, largely driven by gas-to-coal switching driven by the prices and economics that prevailed in Q1 2025, with the gas price significantly higher than the coal price. Datacentre power demand is currently driving gas prices up in the USA, so it is likely that the huge surge in US coal demand will continue. Global carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector rose by 1.1% to 35 806 Mt, with over a third of that increase being attributable to the very significant (10%, as already noted) rise in US coal consumption. The US rise in carbon dioxide emissions was more than the entire OECD region combined. But China is still by far the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter. North America’s carbon dioxide emissions were up by 142.2 Mt, more than India, Russia and China combined. Europe’s carbon dioxide emissions increased by half a percent, mostly driven by non-EU European countries. The Statistical Review reports that lithium production (although it started from a much lower base point relative to other key minerals) is now nearly ten times higher than it was ten years ago – another reflection of electrification.
Source: Selene Law, head of the Statistical Review of World Energy at the Energy Institute, presentation to the First Friday Press Club, 11 September 2026.
Critical minerals. Source: Energy Institute
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