Low-carbon primary energy
13.8%
of all the energy the world uses (2025). In 2015 it was 10.9%.
▲ Rising slowly: +2.9 points in 10 years
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Spaghetti Scenarios · Transcendence trajectory
Energy transition and planetary capacity
Humanity stops depending on fossil fuels and gets its energy from clean sources: the sun, the wind, water, the atom and, someday, large-scale nuclear fusion. It is the main lever for civilization to harness all the energy of its planet: Semiversal Type 1.
The world's electricity is getting cleaner fast; the total energy we use, not yet.
Clean electricity
42.6%
of the world's electricity came from low-carbon sources in 2025. In 2015 it was 33.5%.
▲ +9.1 points in 10 years
Storage capacity
108 GW
of new batteries installed worldwide in 2025: 40% more than in 2024.
▲ Already 11 times more than in 2021
Progress of fusion projects
2039
is the year ITER, the largest fusion experiment, is expected to operate with its final fuel.
▼ 4 years later than the 2016 plan
Two speeds: electricity and total energy
Move the slider to see each year. The top line is electricity; the bottom one, all energy (including transportation, industry and heating).
- Low-carbon electricity42.6%in 2025
- Low-carbon total energy13.8%in 2025
Low-carbon = renewables + nuclear.
Where the world's electricity came from in 2025
Renewables overtook coal for the first time, but fossil fuels still produce more than half.
- Fossil fuels57.4%
- Nuclear8.9%
- Solar8.7%
- Wind8.5%
- Hydropower and other renewables16.5%
Fossil = 100 − 42.6. 'Hydropower and other' = 42.6 − nuclear − solar − wind.
Batteries: storage takes off
108 GWof new batteries in 2025
+40%more than what was installed in 2024
×11the installed capacity of 2021
~80%of new capacity is grid-scale
Nuclear fusion: the timeline
Fusion is the milestone the profile folds into this trajectory. It has already been demonstrated in the lab, but producing electricity is decades away.
- 2022First fusion ignition in a lab: the NIF experiment (U.S.) got more energy out than the lasers put in.
- 2024ITER approves a new plan: a 4-year delay for the phase with its final fuel.
- Today · October 2026
- 2035ITER: first fusion operations with deuterium.planned
- 2036ITER: full magnetic energy.planned
- 2039ITER: start of operation with deuterium and tritium, the fuel of a future power plant.planned
Kardashev scale: where we stand today
0.73today
Type 1~2371
Type 1 is a civilization that harnesses all the energy of its planet. At the estimated pace it would be reached around 2371; that date is only an order of magnitude.
Energy transition and planetary capacity
- Probability
- Uncertain
- Timeframe
- 2030–2050 and beyond
- Confidence
- Medium
Signals to watch
- % of low-carbon primary energy
- % of clean electricity
- Storage capacity
- Progress of fusion projects
Possible human action
- Investment in generation and storage
- Shared grids
- Electrification