'Unstoppable force' of solar power propels world to 40% clean electricity

Summary

Clean power provided 40% of the world's electricity last year for the first time since the 1940s, new figures show.Clean energy comes from nuclear and renewable sources like wind and solar. The milestone has been reached thanks to the "staggering" rise of solar, which has doubled in just three years, energy thinktank Ember said in its new report.And solar was the fastest-growing electricity source for the 20th year in a row.It now provides 7% of the world's electricity. But it remains eclipsed by wind, which grew to 8% last year, and nuclear to 9%.Hydropower - produced by running water, usually from rivers or reservoirs, and the world's oldest and largest single source of renewable power - has hovered at 14%.Phil MacDonald, Ember's managing director, said: "Paired with battery storage, solar is set to be an unstoppable force."As the fastest-growing and largest source of new electricity, it is critical in meeting the world's ever-increasing demand for electricity." Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 1:13 BP slashes renewables investments and boosts fossil fuel production Nuclear energy is considered a clean energy source because it produces almost zero greenhouse gases or other air pollutants.The report's findings come as US President Donald Trump, in charge of the world's second most polluting country, restricts offshore wind farms and seeks to expand the mining and burning of coal in a bid to fuel booming AI data centres.China and India, the world's largest and third largest polluting countries respectively, are steaming ahead with their clean power plans.More than half the world's new solar electricity came from China last year - though it is still building new coal power plants too.Professor Xunpeng Shi, president of the International Society for Energy Transition Studies (ISETS), said: "The future of the global power system is being shaped in Asia, with China and India at the heart of the energy transition."Electricity demand on the ris...