Science Magazine Names Renewable Energy's Unstoppable Growth as 2025 Breakthrough of the Year

18 December 2025 — The journal Science has named "the seemingly unstoppable growth of renewable energy" as its 2025 Breakthrough of the Year, recognising a historic shift in global energy production that saw solar and wind power surpass coal in electricity generation for the first time.

The annual selection, made by Science's editors and news team, highlights the most significant scientific development of the year. In 2025, the honour went not to a single discovery but to a systemic transformation: the scaling of renewable energy technologies to the point where they are reshaping the global energy landscape.

A Historic Tipping Point

Two milestones defined the selection. First, 2025 marked the first year in which renewable energy sources generated more electricity globally than coal — a threshold that seemed distant just a decade ago. Second, during the first half of the year, all growth in global electricity demand was met entirely by new solar and wind power capacity, meaning no additional fossil fuel generation was required to satisfy rising consumption.

The editors described the trend as "unstoppable," noting that it brings the world closer to a turning point where annual global carbon emissions could plateau and eventually decline — a prerequisite for stabilising the climate.

Economics, Not Just Policy

A central theme of Science's coverage was that the renewable energy transition is increasingly driven by economic reality rather than environmental policy alone. Dramatic cost reductions, largely fuelled by China's industrial scale in manufacturing solar cells, wind turbines, and lithium batteries, have made wind and solar the cheapest energy options in much of the world.

China now dominates global production of solar panels, wind turbines, and lithium batteries, and has committed to these technologies both to meet its enormous domestic demand and to export them globally. The country's deployment of wind and photovoltaic farms over the past year contributed significantly to the increased penetration of renewable energies worldwide.

Expert Reactions

The Science Media Centre Spain collected reactions from several energy experts following the announcement.

Miguel de Simón Martín, Full Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of León, described the selection as accurately reflecting "the magnitude of the change that the global energy system is undergoing."

"This is not a temporary trend, but a genuine paradigm shift: for the first time, solar and wind energy have grown enough to cover the entire increase in global electricity demand in the first half of the year and have surpassed coal in electricity generation. The real milestone is not only that renewables are growing, but that they have become the most economical and secure option for meeting most of the world's energy demand." — Miguel de Simón Martín, University of León

Julio J. Melero, Director of the Joint Research Institute for Energy and Resource Efficiency (ENERGAIA) at the University of Zaragoza, emphasised the maturity of the underlying technologies and the emergence of China as a dominant player.

"If a firm and serious commitment is made, change no longer depends on ideas or technologies, but on the ability to implement them on a large scale and quickly." — Julio J. Melero, University of Zaragoza

Structural Challenges Remain

The experts cautioned that the massive deployment of renewable energy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for addressing the climate challenge. Significant structural challenges persist:

• Grid adaptation: Electricity grids must be upgraded to handle the decentralised and intermittent nature of renewable generation.
• Energy storage: Large-scale storage solutions are needed to bridge gaps when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow.
• Electrification of difficult sectors: Industries such as aviation, shipping, and heavy manufacturing remain hard to decarbonise.
• Geopolitical tensions: China's industrial dominance in renewable technology manufacturing creates new geopolitical dynamics.
• Social and environmental costs: The renewable energy industry relies heavily on extractive materials such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements, with documented reports of forced labour in some supply chains.

Vanesa Castán Broto, Professor of Urban Climate Change at the University of Sheffield, noted that the expansion of renewable energy cannot be accepted at any price.

"Renewable energy must be integrated into a just transition that takes into account the equitable distribution of benefits and burdens, recognises the right of individuals and communities to control how energy is produced, distributed, and used in their territories, and ensures the inclusion of multiple voices in decision-making processes." — Vanesa Castán Broto, University of Sheffield

A Year of Scientific Milestones

The renewable energy selection joins a prestigious lineage of Science Breakthrough of the Year honours. In 2024, the journal selected lenacapavir, a long-acting HIV prevention drug, as its Breakthrough of the Year. In 2023, the honour went to obesity drugs (GLP-1 agonists). The 2025 selection is notable for recognising a technological and economic transformation rather than a single biomedical or physics discovery, reflecting the journal's broad view of what constitutes a scientific advance.

Sources

• Science magazine, "Breakthrough of the Year 2025," 18 December 2025
• Science Media Centre Spain, "The 'unstoppable' growth of renewables is the scientific breakthrough of the year for Science magazine," 18 December 2025, sciencemediacentre.es
• Expert reactions: Miguel de Simón Martín (University of León), Julio J. Melero (University of Zaragoza), Vanesa Castán Broto (University of Sheffield), via Science Media Centre Spain