Clean Energy Correspondent

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PREMIUM

July 7 2026

Hello and welcome to Energy Source, coming to you today from London where we are experiencing the third heatwave of the year (32C at the time of writing) following record June temperatures.

The heat has strained Britain’s power markets because it lowers the efficiency of solar and gas-fired power stations and in June also prompted some of France’s nuclear power stations to temporarily shut down due to high river temperatures, reducing the country’s ability to export electricity across the Channel.

Britain’s energy industry is also waiting to see what exactly Andy Burnham, who is expected to take over from Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister later this month, means when he says he wants to take “greater public control of energy”.

Many remember former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to nationalise electricity networks, which prompted some groups to set up holding companies in Hong Kong.

For today’s newsletter, I take a closer look at the findings of the Energy Institute’s annual compendium of world energy statistics — and what they tell us about the changing nature of the global energy system. Thanks for reading, Rachel.

Ten things we learnt from the Energy Institute’s 75th Statistical Review of World Energy

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The London-based Energy Institute has released its annual Statistical Review of World Energy — the industry bible published by oil and gas giant BP until 2023 and now in its 75th year. The 66 pages of global data give a bird’s-eye view of the global energy system and the progress of efforts to develop lower-carbon sources of energy. All of the figures are for 2025 so do not factor in any impact from the Iran war, but nonetheless put hard numbers on key trends. For the first time, it tracks data centre power demand, battery capacity and off-grid solar capacity.

1. Energy demand is growing — and so is the burning of fossil fuels. Total energy supply climbed by 1.7 per cent to reach more than 600 exajoules. The increase mostly came from fossil fuels (six exajoules) followed by renewables at 3.3 exajoules. Emissions climbed by 1.1 per cent. Overall, fossil fuels still account for about 86 per cent of total energy supply, and renewables, nuclear and hydropower the rest. But a huge caveat: the figures include all the energy wasted when burning fossil fuels, as opposed to just the energy used by consumers. Experts such as Michael Liebreich of Liebreich Associates estimate that low-carbon energy supplies as much as 30 per cent of “useful” energy, meaning the shift away from fossil fuels is further ahead than the review’s statistics suggest.

Line chart of Annual supply, exajoules showing Total energy supply is growing

2. Electricity is taking a greater role in the energy system. Electricity generation grew by 3 per cent to reach 32,202 terawatt-hours. Some of this is due to demand for air conditioning, data centres and population growth, but the trend also reflects the growth of electric cars in place of combustion engines and other electrification, vital for any shift away from fossil fuels. China’s electricity demand grew by about 5 per cent, or the typical consumption of Germany.

3. Renewables are rapidly gaining ground in electricity. Renewables supplied almost 19.47 per cent of global electricity, up from 17.25 per cent in 2024. The combined output of renewables, nuclear power and hydropower contributed 42.22 per cent of the mix — significantly higher than coal at 32.64 per cent. “Rising electricity demand was met entirely by low-carbon sources,” the EI said. “Fossil generation fell overall.”

4. Solar power’s stunning growth continues. Solar power generation grew by 30 per cent to produce 8.7 per cent of global power — only slightly behind nuclear’s output at 8.8 per cent. The latter grew by only 1.3 per cent and hydroelectric output grew by only 0.4 per cent — potentially highlighting the far longer time it takes to develop both types of projects.

5. China is home to more than half the world’s solar capacity. China’s installed solar capacity grew by 35.5 per cent last year to reach 1.2 terawatts, meaning it now has 50.3 per cent of the world’s total installed solar capacity, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s statistics used by the EI. This is followed by the US at 8.8 per cent, India at 5.7 per cent and Germany at 4.4 per cent.

6. Homes and businesses are taking their electricity supply into their own hands. A separate attempt to capture off-grid and behind-the-meter solar capacity shows there is now roughly 1.2 terawatts, up from 136 gigawatts globally in 2015, highlighting how businesses and households have taken advantage of cheap Chinese solar panels to meet their own energy needs. (There is some overlap with Irena’s figures in (5) but it’s not clear how much.)

Line chart of Solar PV behind-the-meter and off-grid installed capacity (megawatts) showing Rooftop solar is booming

7. Data centre power demand is here. Demand for electricity for data centres climbed 19.7 per cent to 788 terawatt-hours, outpacing the 13.9 per cent annual growth rate between 2020 and 2025. It grew faster in the US (25.5 per cent) than in China (20.3 per cent). The US accounted for about 40 per cent of the total data centre electricity demand.

Line chart of Data centre power demand, terrawatt-hours showing The data centre power surge is here

8. Low-carbon hydrogen development is slow. Production of “green” hydrogen — made through electrolysis using low-carbon electricity — reached 317,000 tonnes per year, up from 76,900 tonnes in 2023. But production of “blue” hydrogen — splitting it from gas and capturing the carbon dioxide emissions — has flatlined at about 765,000 tonnes per year since 2023. Both remain a fraction of the roughly 100mn tonnes of hydrogen used globally each year — mostly made through methods which spew out carbon dioxide.

9. Batteries are booming. Grid-scale battery storage has grown in capacity terms by 65.9 per cent on average globally between 2015 and 2025 to now reach almost 302GW — about 48 per cent of which is in China.

10. What does all of this say about the energy transition? Is there one, or are we just using more and more energy of all types? “We are seeing elements of both energy addition and energy transition,” says the EI, highlighting the roughly three percentage point decrease in fossil fuels’ share of global (primary) energy supply over the past 10 years. Nonetheless, the rise in emissions marks the fifth year in a row of an increase since the coronavirus pandemic. “The ability to limit global warming to 2 degrees centigrade will depend on policy decisions and deployment particularly in major economies,” it added.

Power Points

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Ukraine is striking Russian energy infrastructure at an unprecedented rate, according to an FT data analysis.
The shipping industry’s backing for green power has sunk as the majority of vessel owners stick to traditional dirty marine fossil fuels or explore alternatives.
The King of Big Oil: Exxon’s Darren Woods is the industry’s most powerful chief executive for a generation.

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Energy Source is written and edited by Jamie Smyth, Martha Muir, Alexandra White, Rachel Millard, Malcolm Moore, Ryohtaroh Satoh and Stephanie Findlay with support from the FT’s global team of reporters. Reach us at energy.source@ft.com and follow us on X at @FTEnergy. Catch up on past editions of the newsletter here.

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