South Korea is enjoying a notable milestone in sustainable energy, according to Renewables Now.
Fossil fuels accounted for less than half of the country's grid energy in a month for the first time in April 2025.
Energy think tank Ember reported that coal dropped to an 18.5% share of the nation's energy mix, compared to a 30% share across 2024. Solar power also rose to 9.2%, up from a previous high of 8.7%.
All told, fossil fuels generated 49.5%, or 21.8 terawatt-hours, of power for South Korea in the month.
While this is great news, South Korea continues to make investments in liquefied natural gas. LNG is a big source of emissions as well, and some have even argued that it's worse than coal.
Ember has assessed that South Korea's emissions are quite high overall. Per capita, it is nearly three times more polluting than the global average.
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"The role of fossil fuels in South Korea's power mix is decreasing as the country turns to new sources of electricity," said Ember senior data analyst Nicolas Fulghum. "Recent months show faster deployment of solar power, but South Korea is still trailing behind other advanced economies that are driving rapid deployment of wind, solar and batteries."
Fossil fuels have been a primary driver of atmospheric pollution globally, leading to increasingly destructive weather patterns like floods and droughts. These patterns have, in turn, caused drops in agricultural yields and increases in home insurance costs.
Utility-scale solar energy projects are ramping up worldwide, which evades those consequences and produces some of the most affordable electricity available. South Korea has been increasing its solar footprint in imaginative ways, such as by having strips of panels on highways and covering public buildings with them.
The guidance given in the Ember report was to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy and exceed South Korea's stated net-zero goals.
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Definitely 👍 "The government must advance the timeline for phasing out coal-fired power generation to before 2040, as previously planned, and swiftly reduce reliance on gas-fired power generation by expanding flexible energy resources," said Han Ga-hee, head of the energy market and policy at Solutions for Our Climate.
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