In a historic milestone for the energy transition with clean sources in 2025, solar and wind generation has managed to cover the entire increase in global electricity demand, displacing for the first time the dominance of coal.
The international energy landscape has reached a point of no return this year. According to the latest sector balances, renewable energies have formally surpassed fossil fuels in terms of global electricity generation.
This progress, driven by unprecedented growth in solar and wind infrastructure, has allowed low emission sources not only to absorb the growth of global consumption in the first half of 2025 but also to begin reducing the share of polluting energies sustainably.
The journal Science has named the “unstoppable” growth of renewable energies worldwide as the scientific breakthrough of the year 2025.
Asian leadership and economic efficiency
This paradigm shift has China as its main engine of transformation. The Asian giant has accelerated its transition at a faster pace than any other power, consolidating massive storage and generation projects.
However, the determining factor behind this “sorpasso” is not only environmental but economic: production costs have dropped dramatically.
Currently, new onshore wind and solar developments are up to 40% more economical than coal or gas plants built from scratch, making decarbonization the most profitable route for financial markets today.
The end of the fossil profitability myth
Traditionally, the use of hydrocarbons was justified by their high energy return rate (EROI). However, recent scientific studies have dismantled this advantage.
While in the extraction stage fossil fuels show high ratios, when measuring the net energy available at the final consumption point —such as the electricity that reaches homes—, the indices fall to levels between 6:1 and 3:1.
This technical reality equals or even places renewables above in terms of real efficiency, eliminating the last solid argument for the dependence on oil and coal.
Although coal maintains a strategic backup role in certain economies to ensure grid stability, the trend is irreversible.
The flexibility of solar energy and the deployment of floating technologies in marine environments are solving the structural challenges of space, consolidating clean energies as the fundamental pillar of the 21st-century electric supply.
