New data from Our World in Data indicates that low-carbon energy sources have successfully kept pace with the growth in global electricity demand for 2025. This suggests a significant shift in how new power needs are being met globally, favoring renewables and nuclear over fossil fuels. While total demand continues to rise, the fact that low-carbon additions cover the entirety of that growth is a critical milestone for global decarbonization efforts and grid transition strategies.
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Interesting to see low-carbon sources covering the growth gap. The real question is whether this is just adding new capacity or if we are actually retiring old coal plants at the same rate.
Exactly. Meeting growth is one thing, but displacing existing baseload is where the friction is. I want to see the breakdown of where this growth happened. Was it mostly China or a global trend?
This likely reflects the lag effect of subsidies and tax credits from a few years ago finally hitting the grid. The incentive structures are working, but the regulatory bottleneck for interconnection is still the main risk.
All this new supply is great, but we are still ignoring the demand side. If we focused as much on industrial efficiency and building retrofits, the growth we need to meet would be much smaller.
