{"id":601118,"date":"2025-11-29T10:47:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T10:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/601118\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T10:47:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T10:47:16","slug":"chart-solar-and-wind-are-meeting-and-exceeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/601118\/","title":{"rendered":"Chart: Solar and wind are meeting \u2014 and exceeding \u2014\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Between January and September, the two clean-energy sources grew fast enough to more than offset all new demand worldwide, <a href=\"https:\/\/ember-energy.org\/latest-insights\/q3-global-power-report-no-fossil-fuel-growth-expected-in-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to data<\/a> from energy research firm\u00a0Ember.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Power demand rose by 603\u00a0terawatt-hours compared to that same time period last year. Solar met nearly all that new demand on its own, increasing by 498 TWh. Wind generation, meanwhile, climbed by 137\u00a0TWh.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">What happens when clean energy not only meets but exceeds new power demand? We start to burn less fossil fuels. At least a\u00a0little less: Through Q3, fossil-fuel generation dropped by 17 TWh, compared to the first three quarters of 2024. This trend is expected to continue through the end of the year. Ember forecasts that fossil-fuel generation will have experienced no notable growth in 2025 \u2014 something that hasn\u2019t happened since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s unclear whether this flatlining marks the beginning of the end for fossil-fueled electricity or whether it\u2019s just a\u00a0pause before another surge in dirty power. The answer will more or less be determined by what grows faster: electricity demand or renewable energy.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Common consensus is that the world\u2019s appetite for electricity will expand rapidly in the coming years. The planet is warming and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canarymedia.com\/articles\/clean-energy\/renewables-emissions-power-demand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">driving increased use of air conditioning<\/a>. AI developers are building massive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canarymedia.com\/articles\/data-centers\/data-center-power-forecasts-climb-to-unreachable-heights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">power-hungry data centers<\/a>. Cars, homes, and factories are being electrified. That all adds up: The International Energy Agency <a href=\"https:\/\/iea.blob.core.windows.net\/assets\/0a7a40a4-5dcb-4d6e-a7ad-76a1c90ec8eb\/WorldEnergyOutlook2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expects<\/a> power demand to rise by a\u00a0staggering 40% over the next decade.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Meanwhile, it\u2019s almost not worth considering long-term forecasts about the growth of clean energy, given how inaccurate they\u2019ve been in the past. Analysts have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canarymedia.com\/articles\/solar\/chart-solar-power-keeps-beating-expectations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consistently underestimated<\/a> solar, in particular.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For the global power sector to truly decarbonize, carbon-free energy needs to not only keep pace with electricity demand but far outrun it. Let\u2019s hope solar continues to overperform.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between January and September, the two clean-energy sources grew fast enough to more than offset all new demand&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-601118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115632592856249097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}