World electricity generation mix 1971-2016

Though still dominant, power generation from coal has been decreasing for the three last years, reaching 38.4% of the electricity produced globally in 2016, its lowest share since 2001. The generation from gas grew slowly to reach 15% in 1990; since then steady increases have seen it grow to 23.2% in 2016. This is a slightly smaller share than renewables (24.2%) which initially was dominated by hydro, but recent growth has come from the development of wind and solar PV. Nuclear production had steadily increased in the 1970s and 1980s, before plateauing at around 17% of electricity production and then declining since the 2000s to reach approximately 10%. Power production from oil peaked at almost 25% of power production in 1973, just before the oil crisis, and has been declining since then. From being the second fuel used for electricity production after coal, it has become the fifth, just above 3% of the global electricity generation in 2016. Whilst globally the use of oil for electricity generation has fallen sharply, it still accounts for over 70% of electricity generation in a number of countries including Lebanon, Iraq or Jamaica. Oil and natural gas combined provided 100% of power production in countries such as Bahrain, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brunei Darussalam.

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