The International Energy Agency’s ‘Monthly Electricity Statistics’ report shows that in March total net electricity generation in the OECD reached 908.7 TWh, an increase of 3.1% compared to March 2024. Of this total, 392.9 TWh (43.2%) was produced from fossil fuels, 358.7 TWh (39.5%) from renewable sources and 153.2 TWh (16.9%) from nuclear power. On a year-to-date basis, total net production increased by 3.5% in the first quarter of 2025.
Generation from fossil fuels increased by 1.2% year-on-year, from natural gas it decreased by 2.6% year-on-year (-6.4 TWh), and from coal it increased by 8.7% y-o-y (+10.7 TWh). The shares of natural gas, coal and oil as a percentage of total electricity generation were 26.7%, 14.8% and 1.2%, respectively. The increase in coal-fired generation was driven by the OECD Americas (+24.0% y-o-y, +11.2 TWh) and OECD Europe (5.2%, +1.7 TWh), whereas it fell in OECD Asia Oceania (-4.8%, -2.1 TWh). Notable increases were observed in the United States (+27.3%, +11.1 TWh) and in Germany (+16.9% +1.6 TWh). On a year-to-date basis, generation from coal increased by 8.0% in the OECD (+35.3 TWh).
Electricity from renewable sources increased by 4.5% year-on-year (+15.6 TWh) in the OECD in March. The output from solar continues to increase (+28.8% y-o-y, +18.9 TWh), counter-balancing the decrease observed in hydro generation (-6.6%, -8.8 TWh). This trend was mainly driven by OECD Europe, where generation from hydro dropped by 18.1% (or -11.3 TWh), driven by France (-2.0 TWh), Italy (-1.4 TWh), Switzerland (-1.5 TWh) and Türkiye (-1.3 TWh). But generation from wind increased in the OECD (+3.1%, +3.5 TWh), amounting to 115.0 TWh.
Nuclear power generation increased 4.8% year-on-year (+7.0 TWh) in the OECD in March. Nuclear based production increased in OECD Europe (7.1% y-o-y, +3.8 TWh) and OECD Asia Oceania (+15.3%, +3.3TWh), while in the OECD Americas it remained stable (-0.2% y-o-y, -0.1 TWh). On a year-to-date basis, OECD Asia Oceania saw the largest increase in nuclear production (+16.5%, +10.5 TWh) in the first quarter of 2025.
Notably, in India electricity generation from solar increased dramatically on a y-o-y basis (+37.5%, +4.7 TWh), to a share of 9.8% of total electricity generation in the country. Electricity generation from other low-carbon sources also increased sharply on a year-on-year basis: +17.4% (+0.6 TWh) for nuclear, +25.4% (+1.9TWh) for hydro, +12.1% (+0.6TWh) for wind. But generation from combustible renewables decreased 12.6%, (-0.6 TWh y-o-y).
