Good news! In 2024, 40.9% of the world’s electricity was produced from low-carbon energy (compared to 39.4% in 2023). This has not happened since… 1940, according to the Global Electricity Review published by the Ember think tank.
Thus, compared to 2023, renewable energies made it possible to produce 858 TWh more, which is equivalent to 1.5 times France’s electricity production. With the contribution of nuclear power, the level of global low-carbon electricity production now rises to 12,609 TWh.
In 2024, the sources of low-carbon electricity in the global energy mix were distributed as follows:
80 countries produced more than half of their electricity from these sources, including 47 countries that produced more than 75%.
The report, which analyzed electricity data from 215 countries, calculated that the main driver of this increase remains solar power. In fact, its production is doubling every 3 years (2,131 TWh by 2024) with a capacity of 585 GW reached last year.
One small downside, however: in 2024, global electricity consumption (particularly from fossil fuels) increased by 4%, compared with only 2.6% in 2023 and 2.3% in 2022. The reasons for this surge? The proliferation of electric vehicles and heat pumps, but also data centers and… air conditioners to combat heat waves.
Source: Ember.