Solar power crossed a threshold in 2025 that the International Energy Agency once projected for the early 2030s: it accounted for more new electricity-generating capacity globally than all other energy sources — coal, gas, nuclear, wind, and hydro — combined. The IEA's Electricity 2026 report, published in late February, called it "the clearest evidence yet that the energy transition is happening faster than policy is keeping up with." The headline number is striking, but the reasons behind it are more surprising than most coverage suggests.
The cost collapse is the story that the transition numbers rest on. Solar panel costs have fallen 99% since 1976, and in 2025, the levelized cost of new utility-scale solar installations globally averaged $29 per megawatt-hour — below the operating cost of existing coal plants in most of the world, not just the construction cost of new ones. That reversal means solar is no longer a policy-subsidized alternative; it is the default economic choice for new electricity capacity in countries spanning the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
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