# Global electricity production by source

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2025-04-13

electricity, solar, crypto, ai, compute, energy-consumption, china, us, canada, eu, environment, renewable-energy

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I never used to listen to very many podcasts. But lately I've started doing it while heading to/from meetings, either in the car or on the train. This past week I listened to a Bankless podcast talking about crypto and AI, and one of the arguments that was made was that it's probably a safe bet to assume that we're going to need dramatically more compute and electricity in the future.

This seems obvious enough. [If you recall](https://brandondonnelly.com/energy-and-progress), there's no such thing as a wealthy, low-energy nation. If you're a wealthy country, you consume a lot of energy. And that's why [Build Canada recently argued](https://substack.com/inbox/post/161177163) that we need a kind of energy revolution. By 2050, it's likely Canada will have 2-3x the electricity demand that we have today. So today I thought I would share a [few related charts](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-energy-consumption?time=latest&country=IND~CHN~AUS~USA~ZAF~ESP).

Here's electricity production by source across the world. Coal dominates.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/c0dab7798368f6041740b32f9fee711d.png)

Looking at renewables more closely, we again see that wind and solar are making a run for it. And if you consider that [solar is one of the fastest growing energy sources](https://brandondonnelly.com/solar-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-energy-sources), it's not inconceivable that it will start to become a more dominant source in the near term. In the US, solar PV projects make up the largest share of new planned generation capacity.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/03b04126de09589733b227993bad9b31.png)

But the US is not winning this race today. Right now it's China. (Chart below sourced from [here](https://iea-pvps.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Snapshot-of-Global-PV-Markets-1.pdf).) They have the largest cumulative solar capacity, followed by the EU, and then the US. That said, coal still forms a dominant part of China's energy mix, and the country continues to [construct coal-fired power plants](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-2024-coal-power-construction-hits-10-year-high-researchers-say-2025-02-13/) to meet its short-term energy needs.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/86665afc1d7edfaddb7c40aa8e27b5b3.png)

It's unfortunate that Canada is not on this list. That needs to change.

_Cover photo by_ [_Benjamin Jopen_](https://unsplash.com/@benjopen?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/photos/a-close-up-of-a-solar-panel-on-a-building-2SfssudtyIA?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/global-electricity-production-by-source)*