Global Electricity Generation by Fuel Source

Coal remains the single largest source of global electricity generation by volume, though its share varies dramatically between fast-growing Asian industrial grids and rapidly decarbonizing OECD power systems.

Natural gas is the primary dispatchable baseload and peaking fuel in North America, the Middle East, and Eurasia, providing roughly 22% of world electricity.

Zero-emission nuclear fission provides firm 24/7 baseload electricity across 30+ major economies, led by the United States, China, France, Russia, and South Korea.

Hydroelectric dams remain the largest dispatchable renewable electricity source worldwide, anchoring the grids of China, Brazil, Canada, Norway, and the Pacific Northwest.

Wind power has scaled from a niche European technology in 2000 into a multi-thousand-terawatt-hour source on the global electricity grid.

Solar photovoltaics is the fastest-growing electricity generation technology in history, led by exponential utility-scale and distributed buildouts in China, the United States, India, and Europe.

Bioenergy and waste-to-energy plants provide dispatchable renewable electricity and industrial cogeneration across Europe, Brazil, China, and North America.

Combined low-carbon generation (nuclear fission plus all renewable sources) measures how much of a nation's electricity supply operates without direct fossil-fuel combustion.