In May, total net electricity generation in the OECD membership reached 860.6 TWh. Of this total, 356.6 TWh (41.4%) was produced from fossil fuels, 358.5 TWh (41.7%) from renewable sources and 141.6 TWh (16.5%) from nuclear power. On a year-to-date basis, total net electricity production increased by 2.3% in the first five months of 2025.
Electricity generation from fossil fuels decreased 4.8% year-on-year in May. The shares of natural gas, coal and oil as a percentage of total electricity generation were 26.4%, 13.4% and 1.1%, respectively. Generation from natural gas decreased by 6.3% y-o-y (-15.4 TWh), and generation from coal decreased by 1.3% y-o-y (-1.6 TWh). The decreased generation from natural gas year-on-year came from all OECD regions; OECD Americas -5.9% (-10.1 TWh), Asia Oceania -11.0% (-4.0 TWh) and Europe -3.7% (-1.3 TWh). The decrease in coal-fired electricity generation by Europe (-12.0% y-o-y, -3.0 TWh) offset increased generation in the Americas (+1.7% y-o-y, +1.0 TWh) and in Asia Oceania (+1.2% y-o-y, +0.4 TWh). On a year-to-date basis, electricity generation from natural gas has fallen 0.6% (-7.1 TWh) whereas coal increased by 6.2% (+40.1 TWh) in the OECD membership.
Electricity generation from renewable sources increased by 6.0% y-o-y (+20.2 TWh) in May including an increase in solar, which continues to increase – (+20.7% y-o-y, +19.0 TWh). Wind generation also increased, (+8.4% y-o-y, +7.0 TWh). This trend was mainly driven by OECD Europe, where electricity generation from wind increased by 20.3% year-on-year (+7.1 TWh), driven by Germany (+1.8 TWh), the United Kingdom (+1.6 TWh) and Sweden (+1.1 TWh).
Nuclear power generation decreased 1.0% year-on-year (-1.4 TWh) in May. Production increased in Asia Oceania 6.8% year-on-year (+1.6 TWh) but decreased in Europe (-4.2% y-o-y, -2.0 TWh) and the Americas (-1.3% y-o-y, -1.0 TWh). Having said that, on a year-to-date basis, all OECD regions have increased nuclear production this year; Asia Oceania 14.1% (+15.1 TWh), Europe 1.9% (+5.1 TWh) and the Americas 0.2% (+0.6 TWh).
Notably in Hungary in May 2025, electricity generation from coal reached an all-time low of 82.0 GWh. As a result, coal generation made up only 2.5% of Hungary’s total electricity generation in the month, also an all-time low. The share had previously been as high as 9.1% in December 2023.
