Five years in, our research is still electrifying
Ember Current – August 2025 Newsletter
I’ve been lucky enough to spend a few weekends camping in my electric van this month – although it’s a small van, and with a new baby, it’s feeling even smaller! Electric vehicles are rapidly replacing fossil vehicles in Britain – and the same is true of India, where my colleague Ruchita has recently shown that sales have increased 11x since 2020. Electric vehicles in India are becoming part of the new flexible power system as the world turns more and more towards electrification.
Five years have passed since Ember was founded to accelerate the energy transition, and to celebrate, I’ll be sharing my top five picks for Ember research, media coverage and further reading. Over the years, we have evolved to cover not just clean power, but a clean, electrified world. Ember analysis now also focuses on battery storage, grid interconnection and – of course – electric vehicles. Just as my electric van drove us towards a coastal camping adventure with our little one, electrification is driving the world towards greater energy security and falling fossil fuels.
– Phil MacDonald, Managing Director
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Insights, analyses and commentaries
My top five picks for July
In every sector, electricity brings innovation upon arrival. Technologies modernise and become more efficient, and the knock-on effect can cause a reduction in electricity demand growth. Nowhere is this efficiency more important than in cooling, which the world increasingly needs to cope with the impacts of climate change. Analysis led by our interim Europe Director, Pawel, gives a new perspective on the region’s heatwaves, whilst Energy Analyst Biqing Yang shows how China’s cooling stock is increasingly efficient as the government takes big steps to trade in older air conditioners.
China’s consumer goods trade-in: accelerating cooling efficiency in a warmer climate
China’s consumer goods trade-in programme is reducing electricity consumption from cooling. Ember estimates across China residential electricity use for cooling could fall by up to 4.1% in summer 2025.
Heat and power: Impacts of the 2025 heatwave in Europe
A June–July heatwave has caused stress for European power systems, driving electricity demand and doubling daily power prices. Yet grids remained stable, fueled by record volumes of solar.
From fossil to flexible: Advancing India’s road transport electrification
Synchronising electric vehicle charging with renewable energy generation offers a readily achievable opportunity in India’s journey to decarbonisation.
The long march of electrification
A century of growth in electricity has brought us to the Age of Electricity.
Drax is still the UK’s largest emitter
Drax power plant tops the list of largest carbon emitters in the UK, followed by Port Talbot Steelworks and Pembroke gas power station as coal and steel closures shake up rankings.
There’s more! Here’s five other impactful Ember insights from over the years
- Solar BRICS: Emerging economies now lead the world’s clean energy race | Read the report
- Global Electricity Review 2025 | Read the report
- What’s new with national renewable targets? Not much! | Read the report
- Why wind and solar are key solutions to combat climate change | Read the report
- In The Dark: underreporting of coal mine methane is a major climate risk | Read the report
Five key moments Ember was in the news this month
- Solar+storage is so much farther along than you think | Volts Podcast
- China’s Efforts to Ensure Summer Power Supply Get an Assist from Air-Con Trade-Ins | Bloomberg
- Solar tops EU power mix for first time in June, Ember says | Reuters
- Global Electricity Review 2025 | The Energy Transition Show
- Dire predictions about renewable energy were all wrong | The Washington Post
Five more things I’m reading
- Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson | Read more
- 4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment | Read more
- The US Is Losing the Electrification Race to Asia | Read more
- The IEA’s Electricity Mid-Year Update 2025 | Read more
- Power Systems Transformation: Delivering Competitive, Resilient
Electricity in High-Renewable Systems | Read more
Visual storytelling corner
Chart of the month
I chose this graphic by Reynaldo Dizon because it illustrates the sheer scale of emissions from Drax biomass power station – its towering height and the use of bold red make it stand out, reinforcing a sense of urgency and highlighting serious environmental implications.
By mapping emitters geographically, the graphic reveals clear regional patterns. Clusters emerge in the UK’s industrial and coastal zones, visualising the impact of emissions in real places and making the data feel more tangible and locally important.
Turning data into action
Data highlights
Chinese exports of solar cells are growing rapidly. Our China Solar PV Export Explorer will soon be updated to track monthly exports of these products by country
Our India Electricity Data Explorer lets you track generation, capacity and emissions in every Indian state
This is almost as much as was installed in the whole of 2023. Find out more using our Monthly Wind and Solar Capacity Data
Country spotlight
Almost half of US states generated at least 10% of their electricity from solar in May, leading to a national solar record of 11.2%. California, an early adopter of both distributed (rooftop) and utility scale solar, had the highest share at 45%. Nevada, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Utah all achieved over 25%. Texas and Florida have recently accelerated their solar build-out, going from near zero five years ago to over 10% in May 2025. Texas is currently the state with the fastest utility scale solar build-out of any state in US history.
In case you missed it
Did you know?
In June, for the first time ever, solar was the EU’s largest power source.
Solar generated 22.1% of EU electricity in June, pushing coal to an all-time low of 6.1%. Solar records were set in at least thirteen member states, helping the EU power system handle spikes in demand resulting from heatwaves towards the end of June.
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Ember Current is a revamp of an existing monthly newsletter delivered to our subscribers. Ember Current is written by a different one of our analysts each month, bringing you their own top picks of Ember’s insights and a little window into what has felt important to them over the course of the last few weeks. If you want to receive these updates each month, scroll to the bottom of this page and sign up! For queries and feedback, please reach out to [email protected].
Featured image credits
Tom Fisk / Pexels
Acknowledgements
Claire Kaelin, Chelsea Bruce-Lockhart, Euan Graham, Lauren Orso, Kavya Sharma, Phil MacDonald, Rashmi Mishra, Reynaldo Dizon
