Key takeaways from the Energy Institute’s 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy.
By Gage Kellogg, Principal | Managing Director, Power & Infrastructure
Each year, the Energy Institute publishes the Statistical Review of World Energy, one of the industry’s most widely referenced assessments of global energy production, consumption, and emissions. The 2026 edition, which analyzes energy trends through 2025, provides a valuable snapshot of how the global energy landscape is evolving and highlights several trends already shaping the power and infrastructure industry.
One of the report’s most significant findings is that renewables became the largest contributor to global energy supply growth for the first time outside of a recession. Overall, renewable energy, including hydroelectric power and biofuels, expanded by approximately 7% in 2025, with nearly three-fourths of that growth coming from solar. Solar generation alone increased by roughly 30%, continuing its rapid expansion as one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of new electricity. Those are meaningful milestones that underscore the continued acceleration of renewable energy deployment.
At the same time, the report reinforces that renewable growth is only part of the story. Total global energy supply increased by 1.7% during 2025, and every major energy source expanded, including oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, and renewables. Fossil fuels still accounted for approximately 86% of the world’s total energy supply, while global energy-related CO₂ emissions increased by 1.1%.
Taken together, these findings illustrate an important reality. Renewable energy is expanding rapidly, but so is overall energy demand. Rather than immediately displacing conventional generation, renewable resources are increasingly being added to an energy system where overall demand continues to grow. As a result, the conversation is shifting beyond renewable deployment alone to how the broader energy system, including generation, storage, transmission, and grid operations, can keep pace with that growth.
Another finding worth noting is North America’s performance. Despite continued renewable energy growth, the report found that North America was the only region where the carbon intensity of energy increased during 2025, meaning more CO₂ was emitted for each unit of energy supplied than the previous year. U.S. energy-related CO₂ emissions also increased by 3.2% and accounted for more than one-third of the global increase in energy-related CO₂ emissions.
Those findings help explain one of the challenges the U.S. power sector continues to face. Electricity demand is accelerating, driven in part by AI, data centers, and broader electrification. Those facilities require reliable, around-the-clock power. While renewable generation and battery energy storage systems (BESS) continue to grow, natural gas-fired generation remains the primary source of firm, dispatchable capacity available today. As a result, reducing U.S. energy-related CO₂ emissions is likely to remain a challenge until additional low-carbon sources of firm, dispatchable power become more widely available.
Those same market conditions are influencing not only how electricity is generated, but also how energy projects are financed and designed. We’re seeing developers, investors, and lenders adjust return expectations for post-ITC solar projects as incentive structures evolve. Rather than slowing investment, these conversations are placing greater emphasis on project fundamentals, long-term operating performance, and revenue certainty.
Project design is evolving as well. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are becoming an increasingly important component of new solar developments, improving operational flexibility and helping projects deliver power when it is needed rather than only when it is generated. Based on what we’re seeing across the industry, I expect hybrid solar and BESS configurations to become increasingly common as developers respond to changing system needs and evolving project economics.
The 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy reinforces that the energy transition is no longer defined solely by how much renewable generation is added each year. It’s increasingly about how the industry balances renewable growth with rapidly growing electricity demand while maintaining reliability. Those realities are already shaping investment decisions, project design, and the future of the power sector.
