More than 40% of the world’s electricity was generated using low-carbon energy sources – renewables plus nuclear – in 2024, according to Ember, an independent energy think tank.
Solar has been driving the rise in renewables and contributed 6.9% of the electricity mix in 2024.
Fossil fuels are still the source of almost 60% of the world’s electricity, although down a bit from 60.6% in 2023. Coal is the biggest source at 34.4%, followed by gas at 22%.
The chart on the left shows the amount of electricity generated in terraWatt hours from each of the clean energy sources between 2000 and 2024.
Nuclear has remained relatively static, while hydro, wind, solar and other renewables, such as bioenergy, geothermal, tide and wave energy have increased.