Clean energy reaches 40% share globally, Europe is leading the pack

Think tank Ember published its report on clean global energy for 2024, and we've surpassed 40% from low-carbon energy sources. For context, that's a record that stood since 1940, when hydropower was really big, but at the time, the global power demand was 50 times lower.

Now, solar is the leader in the clean energy mix, and it's big enough to power all of India. Europe is the leader in this segment, with seven countries with the highest solar energy generation in the top 15 in the world. Germany took first place in Europe with 71 TWh from solar last year, giving first place to China with a whopping 834 TWh output.

Hungary, on the other hand, has the highest solar share within the country compared to the rest of the world, with 25% of the total energy coming from solar sources.

Overall, the EU's clean energy mix accounted for 71% of the total energy, which includes nuclear, with nearly 47% of that coming from wind, hydro and solar.

Clean energy wasn't the only one on the rise, though. Last year's heatwaves, which turned 2024 into the hottest year to date, caused power sector emissions to reach an all-time high of 14.6 billion tonnes of CO2. Energy from fossil fuels will likely rise in the future in response to those heatwaves.

Ember also points out that the demand for energy, and clean energy in particular, will likely continue to rise with the adoption of AI, data centers, electric vehicles and heat pumps. In fact, these things have already bumped up demand in 2024.

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