Seven Nations Hit Near-100% Renewable Electricity Generation

Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, Paraguay, Iceland, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo now produce over 99.7% of their electricity from renewable sources like hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind, based on IEA and IRENA data compiled by Stanford’s Mark Jacobson. Another 40 countries, including 11 in Europe, generate at least half their power from renewables.

Researchers at Exeter and UCL argue that solar energy has crossed an irreversible tipping point, driven by falling costs and efficiency gains in perovskite-based cells. Their 2023 Nature Communications paper concludes that solar will dominate global electricity markets by 2050 regardless of future climate policy - the economic momentum alone makes the transition inevitable.