Even as the Trump administration rolled back support for renewable energy in the U.S., wind, solar, and electric vehicles made huge strides globally in 2025. For the first time, wind and solar supplied more power than coal worldwide, while plug-in vehicles accounted for more than a quarter of new car sales.
These milestones reflect the dramatic drop in the price of clean energy over the last decade and a half. Today, wind and solar are cheaper than coal and natural gas, and increasingly, they are boosted by ever more affordable batteries, which have gotten 90 percent cheaper over the last decade.
“Solar is no longer just cheap daytime electricity,” said Kostantsa Rangelova, analyst at energy think tank Ember. “Solar is now anytime dispatchable electricity.”
Newly added wind and solar met all new demand for power last year. The global surge in clean energy meant that, in the first half of last year, renewables generated more power than coal for the first time.
In China, the world’s biggest emitter, the rapid buildout of wind and solar is, for the first time, leading to a decline in coal power. For the past year and a half, China’s emissions have been flat or falling.