Five years in, Ember’s vision of an electric future is coming to life

Five years ago, the world’s energy system was beginning to transform at breakneck speed – but the world was flying blind. Policymakers were making trillion-dollar decisions on energy systems with data that was years out of date, if it existed at all. So in 2020 Ember was founded on a disruptive idea: if decisionmakers were empowered with open data, it would accelerate the switch to a clean energy future.

Today, that future is arriving faster than anyone imagined. Solar is surging, fossil fuels are faltering, and the world is entering a decisive decade of electrification. Behind the scenes, and often on the frontlines, Ember has been tracking the transition, shaping the debate and ensuring that no one has to navigate the energy revolution in the dark. This is the story of how a growing team of energy professionals across Asia, Latin America, Europe and beyond are helping to change the course of global energy – and what comes next.

Free the data

We’re living through one of the most profound technological and economic transformations in human history. The fossil fuel-based energy system that powered the industrial age is being reimagined in real time.

Five years ago, those signs were only just appearing. While solar has been the fastest-growing source of electricity for two decades, it’s only in the last five that it’s become clear how the energy system is being fundamentally reshaped. The energy transition was happening, but it was happening in the dark. Policymakers, investors, and civil society were making decisions about the future of electricity with data that was months or even years out of date.

This is the problem that Ember set out to solve. What began as a recognition of a huge gap in the data around the fast-moving electricity transition has become something far more ambitious: a real-time window into the birth of the new electric energy economy.

Now, five years later, Ember tracks electricity generation and capacity in 215 countries and territories. More than 80 countries are updated monthly. Governments use it to shape policy. Journalists use it to tell the story of the transition. Investors use it to direct capital. And all of us get to see the electricity system not as it was in the past, but as it’s unfolding now.