How much did wind and solar contribute to global electricity in 2022?

Apr 14, 2023

With the collaboration of Statista

Around 12% of global electricity supplies came from wind and solar power in 2022, according to a new report. Image: Pexels/Kindel Media

Anna Fleck

Data Journalist, Statista

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Around 12% of global electricity supplies came from wind and solar power in 2022, according to a new report.
There’s been significant progress in the production of solar and wind power, with these sources accounting for 80% of the world's increased need for electricity last year.
But coal and other fossil fuels were still needed to meet the world’s overall growing need for electricity.

Wind and solar power accounted for 12 percent of global electricity in 2022, according to Ember’s fourth annual Global Electricity Review, published today. This rises to 39 percent when combined with other renewables and nuclear.

The following chart shows how much more (or less) electricity was produced by the different energy sources each year versus the year before. Data shows that there’s been significant progress in the production of solar and wind power over the past two decades. In 2022, solar added a record of 245 TWh of generation in 2022, while wind added a record 312 TWh - together accounting for 80 percent of the world's increased need for electricity that year. While this is a move in the right direction, coal and other fossil fuels were still needed to meet the world’s overall growing need for electricity.

The world saw a 2.5 percent increase in demand on average for electricity in 2022. However, demand differs greatly by region. According to the report, Asia has the largest growing electricity needs, while Latin America was the only region to have increased clean power fast enough to meet rising electricity demand over the past seven years whilst at the same time reducing its fossil generation.

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What's the World Economic Forum doing about the transition to clean energy?

Moving to clean energy is key to combating climate change, yet in the past five years, the energy transition has stagnated.

Energy consumption and production contribute to two-thirds of global emissions, and 81% of the global energy system is still based on fossil fuels, the same percentage as 30 years ago. Plus, improvements in the energy intensity of the global economy (the amount of energy used per unit of economic activity) are slowing. In 2018 energy intensity improved by 1.2%, the slowest rate since 2010.

Effective policies, private-sector action and public-private cooperation are needed to create a more inclusive, sustainable, affordable and secure global energy system.

Benchmarking progress is essential to a successful transition. The World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index, which ranks 115 economies on how well they balance energy security and access with environmental sustainability and affordability, shows that the biggest challenge facing energy transition is the lack of readiness among the world’s largest emitters, including US, China, India and Russia. The 10 countries that score the highest in terms of readiness account for only 2.6% of global annual emissions.

To future-proof the global energy system, the Forum’s Centre for Energy & Materials is working on initiatives including Clean Power and Electrification, Energy and Industry Transition Intelligence, Industrial Ecosystems Transformation, and Transition Enablers to encourage and enable innovative energy investments, technologies and solutions.

Additionally, the Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) is working to assemble public and private partners to further the industry transition to set heavy industry and mobility sectors on the pathway towards net-zero emissions. MPP is an initiative created by the World Economic Forum and the Energy Transitions Commission.

Is your organisation interested in working with the World Economic Forum? Find out more here.

The world saw a 2.5 percent increase in demand on average for electricity in 2022. Image: Statista.

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