GNV News, July 25, 2025

On July 22, 2025, the United Nationsannounced that we have already passed the tipping point at which the declining cost and spread of renewable energy (hereafter, renewables) are progressing irreversibly. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in 2024 the per kWh cost of power sources, from cheapest to most expensive, was onshore wind, solar panels, and new hydropower. Wind power is already 53% cheaper than the cheapest fossil fuels, and solar power 41% cheaper, and both are expected to become more widespread.

Amid these cost declines, 92.5% of the power generation capacity newly added in 2024 came from renewables. Between 2015 and 2024, renewable capacity (the maximum output that equipment can theoretically deliver) increased by 140%, and despite rising electricity consumption, growth in fossil-fuel capacity was limited to 16%. However, as of 2024, fossil fuels still account for 80% of the world’s energy supply, making a shift to renewables essential. Electricity consumption is also increasing due to greater usage in low- and middle-income countries, the growing number of AI data centers each consuming about as much electricity as around 100,000 households, and rising cooling demand as temperatures climb; these increases need to be met with renewables.

Africa accounts for 85% of the world’s population without access to electricity, making the expansion of renewables urgent to accommodate future growth in electricity consumption. However, at present Africa has only 1.5% of global renewable capacity, extremely little compared with China, which holds about 41% of renewable capacity, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) member countries with 39%. Of the global investment in renewables totaling US$2 trillion, the share Africa receives remains at about one-fifth, making financing for renewable investment in low- and middle-income countries a key challenge.

Learn more about recent global electricity use and global warming → “The Reality of Exceeding 1.5°C: Global Climate Change Issues, Responses, and Japanese Media Coverage”

Learn more about the decline of the oil industry and Japanese media coverage → “Oil and the World: Is the Media Capturing the Trend?”

Wind turbines in the Ngong Hills, Kenya (Photo: Mwangi Kirubi / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0])