A “record” number of solar and wind capacities were installed worldwide in 2025, representing the equivalent of more than a seventh of global gas production, the think tank Ember reported, estimating that renewables were “mitigating the impact of the energy crisis”.
“The electricity produced by these installations alone could replace more than a seventh of global gas production, or almost double the total volume of Qatar’s annual LNG (liquefied natural gas) exports,” underlines the think tank specializing in energy, while the war in the Middle East has caused the price of oil and gas to soar and placed energy security at the heart of concerns.
Since the start of the conflict on February 28, “existing wind and solar capacities around the world have made it possible to avoid the production of around 330 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from gas, a potential saving of more than 40 billion dollars,” he adds in a report published Friday.
At current market prices, this equates to an annual gas import cost of around $138 billion, he estimates.
“The continued escalation of tensions in the Middle East is a stark reminder of the risks of reliance on imported oil and gas,” said Ember analyst Kingsmill Bond.
“Solar power, wind power and batteries offer importers a real path to energy security, a less expensive solution, faster to deploy and without geopolitical constraints,” he added.
“The scale and speed of development of solar energy is unprecedented in the energy sector,” said Leonard Heberer, data analyst at Ember.
“These technologies are poised to become the backbone of global electricity supply,” he noted.
According to Ember, 814 gigawatt (GW) of solar and wind capacity were added worldwide in 2025 and the combined global capacity of the two energies now exceeds 4 terawatt (TW).
Solar energy accounts for the majority of these new capacities, highlighting “the increasingly important role of solar energy in the global electricity system,” according to Ember.
By the end of 2025, cumulative solar capacity reached nearly 2,900 GW.
The deployment of wind power, for its part, saw a significant increase (+47%) and represented a global capacity of around 1,300 GW at the end of 2025.
