How the World Makes Power

As wind and solar surged, did the world actually change how it makes electricity — or just add new sources on top of the old ones?

Each band is one fuel's share of world electricity generation from 2000 to 2021. Renewables excluding hydro widened from about 1.5% to 12.4% — more than an eightfold rise — while coal's band, starting at 38.6%, only thins to 36.0%. Shares always sum to 100%, so a band can only widen if others give way.

Read the band thickness and how the mix shifts, not the wiggle.

Band thickness is share, not absolute output: a fuel whose band holds steady may still be generating far more power on a larger grid. This exhibit tracks the mix, not the megawatt-hours.

• Coal is still the single largest source in 2021 (36.0%), more than the whole zero-carbon story combined on any one fuel — its share barely moved despite two decades of energy transition.
• The real churn is inside the low-carbon block: renewables ex-hydro overtook nuclear by 2020 (11.5% vs 9.9%), but nuclear's own share fell from 16.7% to 9.8%, so cleaner sources mostly rotated rather than grew.
• Oil quietly collapsed as a power source, from 7.7% to 2.8% — the clearest structural exit in the mix, even as coal held on.

• How fast is the clean share actually climbing?→The Green Grid
• Did a stable mix still mean rising emissions?→The Carbon Footprint
• Is the world simply using more energy overall?→Climbing the Energy Ladder