Reuters’ 2025 charts paint the energy transition in its most honest form: clean electricity output is rising fast, yet fossil fuels still dominate many grids—and nowhere is that tension more visible than in China’s power mix.
On one side of the ledger, renewables and other low-carbon sources are clearly scaling. Output gains aren’t theoretical anymore; they’re measurable and large. On the other side, total electricity demand keeps climbing, and fossil generation remains the dependable “always-on” backbone that fills gaps when weather-dependent supply dips or when demand spikes.
China is the clearest case study of this contradiction. It’s building huge amounts of clean capacity, but it’s also running a system where coal and other fossil sources still carry a heavy share of generation. The result is a grid that can look greener on the margins while staying fossil-heavy in the base load.
The takeaway isn’t “the transition is failing.” It’s that the transition is two races at once:
- build clean power fast, and
- reduce fossil reliance fast enough that clean gains aren’t simply layered on top of rising demand.
2025’s snapshot shows real progress—plus a blunt reminder: until grids have more storage, flexibility, transmission, and demand management, fossil fuels will keep acting like the default safety net, even in countries leading the clean buildout.
