Solar power quietly overtakes nuclear as panels get 'offensively cheap' (Oct. 26)
Quick Read
Global solar generation quietly edged past nuclear in 2025, according to energy think tank Ember, and BBC analysis of Ember data through September 2026 shows solar producing about 13% more electricity than nuclear.
A decade ago solar supplied about 1% of world electricity; Ember and BBC reporting say it is on track to approach 10% in 2026 as panel prices fell into what Ember's Dave Jones calls an "offensively cheap" era.
Cheap Chinese manufacturing, battery cost drops, and rising diesel prices have accelerated rooftop and utility solar from Pakistan to the U.S., including Trump-won states.
In Oregon, Portland General Electric's new Clean Energy Plan says the utility may need to nearly double renewables to meet the state's 2030 emissions benchmark.
Solar power has crossed a threshold most forecasters missed for years. BBC Future reports that global solar electricity generation quietly overtook nuclear in 2025, according to UK-based energy think tank Ember. BBC analysis of Ember data for the 12 months through September 2026 shows solar clearly ahead, producing about 13% more power than the world's nuclear fleet.
A decade ago, solar supplied roughly 1% of global electricity. In 2026 it is on track to approach 10%, BBC Future says, while nuclear output has stayed roughly flat since 2000. Ember co-founder Dave Jones called solar generating more electricity than every nuclear plant on Earth "a pretty insane stat."
Why solar pulled ahead
Cost is the main driver. Solar became the cheapest electricity in history around 2020, BBC Future notes, and a sharp drop in panel prices in 2023-24 pushed the market into what Jones calls "offensively cheap" territory. A single panel can cost well under $100 and generate power for 30 to 40 years with almost no fuel input.
Ember's Global Electricity Review 2026 says solar generation rose by a record 636 terawatt-hours in 2025 to about 2,778 TWh, a 30% jump. Solar alone met about three-quarters of global electricity demand growth that year and overtook wind for the first time. Ember expects both solar and wind to overtake nuclear in 2026.
Batteries are closing the evening gap. Oxford energy professor Jan Rosenow told BBC Future that solar-plus-storage is now routinely cheaper than new fossil plants in sunny regions, and that batteries have largely solved shifting midday sun into evening demand. In California, solar and batteries met more than a quarter of evening peak demand in the first half of 2026, the BBC reported.
What it means in Oregon
The global shift lands close to home. Portland General Electric told regulators this month that it may need to nearly double renewables to hit Oregon's House Bill 2021 target of an 80% cut in power-sector emissions by 2030. That Clean Energy Plan filing is the local version of the same story: solar and wind additions, not new nuclear, are the scale PGE is planning around.
Oregon already hosts utility-scale and highway-right-of-way solar, including the Solar Highway Demonstration Project at the I-5 and I-205 interchange south of Portland. As EVs grow along I-5 and the coast corridors, more daytime solar and storage is what utilities and state planners are counting on to keep charging loads from leaning harder on gas plants.
Federally funded DC fast charging is also arriving. ODOT expects Oregon's first NEVI-funded station in Gladstone to open in December, with more corridor sites in the grant pipeline. Electrification and cheap solar are the same transition, just measured at the meter and at the charger.
Caveats and what comes next
Growth is not friction-free. Grids, longer-duration storage, and permitting still constrain how fast solar can replace fossil generation overnight. Jones told BBC Future that global capacity growth may slow in 2026 for the first time, largely because China changed how it supports new installations after a 2025 rush. Outside China, installations are still rising.
The International Energy Agency still projects solar roughly doubling from 2025 levels by 2030 and overtaking hydropower as the world's third-largest electricity source. Rosenow's summary for BBC Future: the bigger question is no longer whether solar grows, but whether power systems and institutions can keep up.
Bottom line
Solar's rise past nuclear is a data milestone backed by Ember and reported in depth by BBC Future: panel prices collapsed, batteries got cheaper, and demand for reliable power pulled installations forward even where politics were mixed. For Willamette Valley readers, the Oregon echo is PGE's push to roughly double renewables by 2030 and a buildout of EV charging that will need that daytime clean power.
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Cover photo: Oregon Solar Highway Demonstration Project. Photo: Oregon Department of Transportation / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Sources: BBC Future; Ember Global Electricity Review 2026; Apple News link that pointed to the BBC story.
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