In April 2025, solar power became the world’s fourth-largest source of electricity for the first time in history, surpassing nuclear and wind power. According to the Ember think tank, solar power plants account for 10% of global electricity production.
Solar power now ranks behind only coal, gas and hydropower. The jump was particularly large in China, where solar and wind combined accounted for 26% of total generation in April 2025. This is the first time that renewables have provided more than a quarter of the country’s energy consumption in a month.
Experts attribute this breakthrough to the large-scale introduction of solar panels and government support. In recent years, China, the United States, India and the EU have been actively increasing their solar energy capacity, which has led to a change in the structure of global electricity generation.
This trend will accelerate as technology becomes cheaper and investment in green energy increases. But a full transition to low-carbon generation will require further development of energy storage systems and grid upgrades. The data is based on monthly generation statistics collected in Ember’s Electricity Data Explorer.