China Is in a Category of Its Own

China generated 3,913 TWh of renewable electricity in 2025 — more than the United States, Brazil, India, and Canada combined. Its wind and solar output alone, at 2,310 TWh, exceeds the entire renewable total of the second-ranked US. This is not just scale — it is the rate of change. In 2024, 53% of all new solar generation globally came from China. Its clean electricity growth met 81% of its own demand increase in 2024. China’s hydropower capacity of 340 GW is the largest in the world. Its wind capacity of 342 GW is the largest in the world. Its solar capacity crossed 2 terawatts globally in 2024 — doubling in just two years — with China accounting for the majority of that build.

And yet China’s renewable share is only 37%. It generates so much electricity in total — over 10,000 TWh — that even its enormous renewable output does not dominate its grid. Coal still powers about 58% of Chinese electricity, though that share is falling. The transition is happening at a scale that simply has no historical comparison.

Brazil: The World’s Cleanest Large Grid

Brazil generated 650 TWh of renewable electricity in 2025 with an 86.6% renewable share — the highest of any G20 country and nearly triple the global average of 33.8%. Its carbon intensity of 103 gCO₂/kWh is the second-lowest in the G20, after France. Brazil burns fossil fuels for barely 10% of its electricity — compared to a global average of 59%.

The foundation is the Amazon basin’s vast hydroelectric infrastructure, which still supplies about 60% of the country’s electricity. But the growth story is wind and solar. In 2016, wind and solar contributed just 5.8% of Brazilian electricity. By 2025, that share had reached 24% — one of the fastest expansions of variable renewables in any large economy. The northeast of Brazil — dry, flat, windy, and sunny — has become one of the most attractive renewable energy regions on earth. Brazil is proof that a continent-sized economy can run almost entirely on clean electricity. Its challenge is that its clean power depends heavily on rainfall. The drought of 2024 caused hydro output to fall 3.2%, forcing more gas into the mix — a reminder of the vulnerability of hydro-dependent grids to a changing climate.

Norway, Pakistan, and Venezuela: The Hydro Outliers

Three countries in this list illustrate something that volume rankings hide: hydropower is geographically locked. Norway, with 98.9% renewable electricity and 160 TWh, built its grid almost entirely on the steep rivers of its fjords over a century ago. It has barely needed to build anything since. Its challenge now is exporting surplus power to neighbours and managing a grid increasingly dependent on weather-sensitive reservoirs.

Pakistan at #18 is the genuine surprise. With 82.9 TWh and a 46.8% renewable share — powered mostly by the Indus River system — Pakistan generates more renewable electricity than Colombia, Indonesia, or South Korea. A country facing severe power sector challenges and frequent blackouts nonetheless runs a grid that is nearly half renewable, almost entirely because its major rivers predate any energy policy discussion.

Venezuela at #20 tells the saddest version of this story. Its Guri Dam and the Orinoco basin supply essentially all 73 TWh of its renewable electricity — 91.1% of the national grid. But years of economic collapse and neglect have left the system fragile. Venezuela sits near the top of the renewable share ranking not because of clean energy policy, but because its oil-fired alternatives have deteriorated faster than its dams.

India’s Solar Revolution — and the Race to Come

India ranks fourth with 501 TWh, and for the first time in 2025, solar overtook hydro as India’s largest renewable source — generating 196 TWh against hydro’s 178 TWh. India installed more new solar capacity than the United States in 2025, according to Ember’s Global Electricity Review 2026. The IEA forecasts India’s annual renewable capacity additions will more than quadruple from 15 GW in 2023 to over 62 GW by 2030.

India’s renewable share is still only 24% — the country burns coal for 75% of its electricity, driven by surging industrial demand and a population adding the equivalent of a mid-sized European country to its urban workforce every decade. But the direction is clear. India added more clean electricity in 2024 and 2025 than its demand growth required — meaning fossil generation fell even as the economy grew. That is the threshold that matters: the moment renewables grow faster than demand, the fossil share starts shrinking automatically, without anyone being asked to use less energy.

Solar Overtook Wind — and Will Overtake Nuclear Next

In 2025, solar generated 2,778 TWh globally — more than wind’s 2,711 TWh — for the first time in history. Solar has doubled approximately every three years since 2016. Global solar capacity crossed 1 terawatt in 2022. It reached 2 terawatts in 2024 — in just two years. The IEA forecasts nuclear will be surpassed by both solar and wind before 2026 ends.

The technology driving this is photovoltaic panels whose cost has fallen more than 90% since 2010. A solar panel that cost $76 per watt in 1977 now costs less than $0.20 per watt. Battery storage costs fell 20% in 2024 and a further 45% in 2025, according to Ember, with deployment growing 46%. The economics of clean electricity are no longer a policy question. They are an engineering and logistics question. The remaining challenge is not whether to build solar and wind — it is how fast grids can be upgraded to absorb the power those sources generate.