Power Shift: How Clean Energy Is Racing Past Coal

Quietly, and without much fanfare, one of the most profound transformations in modern history is unfolding across the rooftops, fields and coastlines of the world. Clean energy from the sun and the wind is being harnessed on a scale that would have seemed like pure fantasy just a generation ago, and the pace is only accelerating.

A record breaking year

The latest figures from energy analysts are genuinely staggering to behold. In a single recent year, the world added a colossal amount of new renewable generating capacity, a jump of well over a tenth on the previous year that marked the twenty third year in a row that clean energy has smashed its own expansion record.

That relentless streak of record breaking growth speaks volumes about the momentum now behind the shift. This is not a gentle, incremental change but a full blown surge, with renewable power being rolled out faster and more cheaply than almost anyone in the industry dared to predict even a handful of years ago.

The sun takes the lead

Leading this charge, by a considerable distance, is solar power. Panels now account for the overwhelming majority of all new clean energy capacity being installed worldwide, as the cost of the technology has plummeted and made it the cheapest source of electricity ever seen across much of the planet.

The scale of the solar boom is hard to overstate. Fresh installations recently surpassed a symbolic milestone for the first time, and the total amount of solar capacity now standing has quietly grown to become the single largest of any electricity generating technology on earth, eclipsing even long established rivals.

Wind picks up speed

While solar grabs many of the headlines, wind power is enjoying a spectacular resurgence of its own. New wind installations leapt by nearly two fifths in a single year to set a fresh record, an impressive feat achieved despite the industry having to wrestle with a range of stubborn supply chain difficulties along the way.

Together, these two technologies form a powerful and complementary pair. The sun tends to shine when the wind is calm and the wind often blows hardest when the sky is dark, so combining the two helps smooth out the flow of clean power and keep the lights on around the clock in a way neither could manage alone.

The overtaking of coal

All of this points toward a genuinely historic tipping point. After more than a century in which fossil fuels reigned supreme, renewable sources are now poised to overtake coal to become the single largest source of electricity generation anywhere in the world, a milestone few would have thought possible so soon.

It is a symbolic changing of the guard with enormous real world consequences. Every unit of electricity generated by the sun or the wind rather than by burning coal means cleaner air, lower emissions and a small but meaningful step toward taming the greenhouse gases that are warming our fragile planet.

Why it is happening now

Several forces have combined to drive this remarkable acceleration. The most powerful of all is simple economics, as tumbling costs have made building new solar and wind farms cheaper than running many existing fossil fuel plants, turning the green choice into the smart financial choice for investors and governments alike.

A handful of countries, above all a certain manufacturing giant in Asia, have thrown their vast industrial might behind the technology, accounting for the lion's share of recent growth. Their enormous factories have flooded the market with affordable panels and turbines, dragging prices down for everyone else in the process.

The road ahead

For all the good news, the journey is far from complete, and formidable challenges still lie ahead. Ageing electricity grids need upgrading to cope with the surge, and better ways of storing power for when the sun sets and the wind drops remain essential if clean energy is to fully replace its fossil rivals.

Even so, the direction of travel now looks unmistakable and, for many, deeply encouraging. The great shift to clean power is well and truly underway, gathering speed with every passing year, and the sight of a solar panel or a spinning turbine is fast becoming one of the defining images of our age.