Solar is crushing gas growth worldwide, a new report finds
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- Ember reported that 61 of 124 economies that generate electricity from gas have already passed peak gas power generation, including four G7 countries: the UK, Germany, Italy, and Japan.
- Gas share in the global electricity mix fell for a fifth straight year, dropping from 23.9% in 2020 to 21.8% in 2025, with growth between 2021–2025 running at about half the 2016–2020 pace.
- Solar generation grew by 636 terawatt-hours in 2025 — 17 times more than gas, which increased by just 38 TWh, with solar alone supplying roughly 75% of new global electricity demand growth versus gas's 5%.
- Energy security shocks from Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the 2026 Middle East conflict have accelerated the pivot away from imported gas, with Ember analyst Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka noting renewables are 'domestically available, more price stable, and faster to deploy.'
- Among G7 countries, gas generation fell by 50 TWh in 2025 while renewables grew by 123 TWh, with renewables generating almost as much electricity as gas across the bloc.
- India's gas share of electricity fell from 12.6% in 2010 to 2.3% in 2025, Brazil's dropped from 13.7% (2014) to 7.3%, and China held gas at around 3% of its mix despite massive power-demand growth.
- The United States remains the biggest holdout, accounting for 26% of global gas generation in 2025 and serving as the largest driver of gas growth over the past decade.
Why it matters: With 61 of 124 gas-generating economies past peak and renewables outpacing gas 17-to-1 in 2025, the US — which alone accounts for 26% of global gas generation — is now the structural outlier in a transition that is now being driven as much by energy security and industrial competitiveness as by climate policy, directly affecting LNG infrastructure bets and gas-dependent utility valuations.
