13 October 2025
The Rise of Renewables:
A Crucial Turning Point
On 7 October 2025, it was revealed that for the first time ever, renewables overtook coal as the world’s biggest source of electricity in the first half of the year.
Global energy think tank, Ember, has reported that the rise of renewables is reshaping the global power mix. Despite rising electricity demand globally, solar and wind energy have been able to provide 100% of the additional required power to meet extra electricity demand.
“We are seeing the first signs of a crucial turning point,” said Małgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, Senior Electricity Analyst at Ember. “Solar and wind are now growing fast enough to meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity. This marks the beginning of a shift where clean power is keeping pace with demand growth.”
It is clear from the data released that developing countries such as China and India are outpacing the EU and US with their renewable energy growth. China is currently the leader for renewable energy and cut its fossil fuel generation by 2% (-58.7 TWh) in the first half of 2025. Meanwhile, India added new solar and wind capacity, which reduced coal use by 3.1% (-22 TWh) and gas use by 32% (-7.1TWh).
In contrast, the EU and US saw more reliance upon fossil fuels, due to a combination of demand growth, and months of weak wind and hydropower performance.
Sun belt nations such as much of Asia, Africa and Latin America are now able to reduce their energy costs by using solar-based systems, supported by batteries.
The UK, however, like many other wind belt countries faces obstacles such as wind turbine costs (which have not come down as much as solar panels), and higher interest rates which have raised the costs of installing wind farms. Further, winter wind lulls make the systems more expensive to run and builds less feasible. This makes it significantly more challenging for countries with cooler climates to meet the same levels of renewable energy.
What does this mean for the construction industry?
That wind and solar have only just reached a moment of parity with coal demonstrates the huge amount of solar and wind capacity that is still likely to be built around the world. The Construction industry has a unique role to play in delivering the energy transition goals of different countries and looking for the right opportunities against an ever more challenging investment and supply chain backdrop will be harder than ever before. It is clear that solar PV projects have been driving the more significant increases in renewables installed capacity, however there are also opportunities in associated projects for transmission and distribution as well as high voltage DC interconnectors and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) along with other grid stability projects.
What does this mean for project risk and insurance?
Renewable energy projects often require project owners to contemplate various risk transfer and mitigation strategies to address potential exposures, including construction, environmental, regulatory, technological, and operational risks. Effective risk and insurance management during a renewable energy project's development can contribute to the organisation's success and profitability. Despite the sector's inherent risks, regardless of the technologies deployed, the risks fundamentally remain the same.
Our renewable energy Construction specialty team is proud to be fully integrated in facilitating the energy transition- helping to advise some of the most significant renewable energy projects worldwide. We have specialists advising projects including BESS, solar, wind, hydropower, carbon capture, interconnectors, and alternative fuels.
The Renewable Energy sector is not only rapidly growing, but its technology also evolves at a pace that insurers sometimes struggle to keep up with. This creates market challenges, and there isn't a large pool of insurers willing to underwrite these risks. Therefore, early engagement with a renewable energy insurance professional is crucial to the project's success and will also drive the best results in terms of risk mitigation and transfer, and ultimately the project's bankability.
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