Solar energy is booming: Over 6.9% of the electricity worldwide as early as 2024!

Solar energy is booming: Over 6.9% of the electricity worldwide as early as 2024!

Vienna, Österreich - With a remarkable increase worldwide, electricity generation from solar energy broke records again in 2024. According to an analysis of the Ember think tank, the solar content on global electricity generation rose from 5.6 percent in 2023 to 6.9 percent in 2024. This development makes solar energy to the fastest growing energy source, and in the twentieth year in a row.

In 2024, more than 2,100 terawatt hours (TWH) were generated by solar energy. Much of this increase can be attributed to China, which contributed over 250 TWH to the global solar growth. Phil Macdonald, Managing Director of Ember, described solar energy described as the engine of the global energy transition, whereby the combination of solar energy and battery storage is considered crucial for covering the increasing power requirement.

global energy balance

The analysis also shows that hydropower generated 14.3 percent of the electricity worldwide in 2024, while wind power rose to 8.1 percent. Together with other renewable energy sources, which contributed 2.6 percent to generation of electricity, fossil fuels are still very for the foreground. Coal made 34.4 percent and natural gas 22 percent of electricity generation last year. Nuclear power was able to record a share of 9 percent, while other fossil fuels made 2.8 percent.

The annual analysis "Global Electricity Review", which is based on data from 88 countries, covers around 93 percent of global electricity requirements. This data revue is published by Ember for the sixth time.

renewable energies in the context

The increasing importance of renewable energies for the reduction of CO2 emissions is also underlined by the International Energy Agency (IEA). In 2021, renewable energies made up about 19 percent of global final energy consumption, which represents an increase of 2 percent compared to 2000. In countries such as Sweden, Brazil and Canada, hydropower has a leading role in energy supply, with the shares there be 58 percent, 47 percent and 24 percent.

The data for 2023 show that global power generation from renewable energies increase to 9,029 TWH, which corresponds to an increase of 5 percent compared to the previous year. Hydropower controlled 4,249 TWH, wind energy 2,336 TWh and solar energy 1,612 TWH. In addition, access to clean and affordable energy is a central goal of the United Nations agenda, which is to be further increased by 2030.

With these developments it becomes clear that renewable energies, in particular solar energy, play a key role in the global energy landscape and can make a decisive contribution to combating climate change.

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