Renewables Met 2025 Demand

Renewable energy added enough electricity in 2025 to cover all of the world’s new power demand, according to Ember’s annual global review. (ember-energy.org) Ember said low-carbon generation rose by 887 terawatt-hours in 2025, while electricity demand increased by 849 terawatt-hours. Fossil generation fell 0.2% year over year, and renewables supplied 33.8% of global electricity, edging past coal for the first time in the modern era. (ember-energy.org) Solar did most of the work. Ember said solar alone covered 75% of net demand growth in 2025, while the International Energy Agency said solar generation rose by about 600 terawatt-hours and solar photovoltaic capacity additions topped 600 gigawatts for the first time. (ember-energy.org) (iea.org) Electricity demand is rising faster than total energy demand as more vehicles, factories, buildings and computing loads switch to power from oil and gas. The International Energy Agency said global electricity use grew about 3% in 2025, more than twice the pace of overall energy demand growth of 1.3%. (iea.org 1) (iea.org 2) The same agency said industry, electric vehicles, air conditioning and data centers are now major drivers of that growth through 2030. In a separate 2026 outlook, it forecast global electricity demand will rise 3.6% a year on average from 2026 to 2030. (iea.org 1) (iea.org 2) That is spilling into logistics and industrial real estate. JLL said access to affordable, reliable energy for fleet electrification is already affecting site selection, while increased automation, fleet electrification and competition with data centers for limited power are reshaping warehouse decisions. (jll.com) Cold storage is one of the clearest examples because refrigeration runs around the clock and power interruptions can spoil inventory. A Global Cold Chain Alliance electrical paper says a cold storage warehouse often consumes 1 to 3 megawatts of power, and a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory guide treats refrigerated warehouses as prime candidates for demand response because of their heavy electric loads. (gcca.org) (eta-publications.lbl.gov) Prologis, the world’s largest logistics real estate owner, is pitching warehouses as energy infrastructure as well as storage space. In April, it said rooftop solar, batteries and modular microgrids can make logistics sites more resilient, and pointed to a Torrance, California, truck-charging hub that can charge up to 96 trucks at once on behind-the-meter microgrids. (prologis.com) The constraint is not demand alone but delivery. CBRE said adequate power availability is now the top priority for data center developers, and limited power in core markets is pushing projects into new geographies with faster utility connections and more certain supply. (cbre.com) The energy story in 2025 was not that demand stopped growing. It was that wind, solar, hydro and nuclear grew fast enough to meet the increase first, leaving grid access, interconnection speed and reliability as the next bottlenecks for warehouses, fleets and automated facilities. (ember-energy.org) (iea.org)