CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Sunlight and Extraction: Batteries, Phosphate, and the Contradictions of Decarbonization 

A recent report by energy think tank Ember put forward a spot of good news: renewables surpassed one-third of global electricity generation in 2025, surpassing coal power for the first time in a century. Combined, low-carbon sources (renewables, nuclear) grew faster than demand, resulting in a small fall in fossil fuel generation. Solar alone met 75 percent of the increase in global electricity demand.

This was before the war in Iran, which would certainly seem to accelerate the transition. Of course, the Trump administration, through the Department of Defense, is holding back approval for about 165 onshore wind projects in the U.S.- approval is needed to ensure the projects don’t interfere with radar systems and flight paths (ironic a Republican administration using Big Government to stop landowners from using their property), not to mention reimbursing firms to the tune of $2 billion this year for abandoned offshore wind projects, but reports are that Europe, bitten twice in five years by a war related energy crunch, is buying up things like EVs and heat pumps. Even in cloudy Britain, orders for solar panels from Octopus Energy, the UK’s biggest energy firm, have spiked by 50 percent since the war started.

Pakistan has become an epicenter of solar power. After being locked out of the LNG spot market in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine solar increased fivefold from 2.9 percent in 2020 to 32.3 percent in 2025, according to Ember. The government still closed schools for two weeks in March to conserve energy due to the Strait of Hormuz shutdown (though the blow has been softened, LNG is still a big factor), but the trend is undeniable.

It is the same story in Lebanon, where there has been about a tenfold increase in installed solar capacity the past few years, most prominently in rural Lebanon, where it has largely replaced a local diesel economy that was long endemic due to the state’s inability to supply consistent electricity. South Africa, long plagued by brownouts, has gone over 300 days without an interruption to its electricity supply. Coal still dominates the country’s energy production but it’s also the fastest-growing solar market in Africa.

There is plenty to work out as far as equality of access and the future of the grid. In all these places, the solar expansion has been less a result of state planning and more a matter of people understandably taking electricity in their own hands (Lebanon saw state collapse in 2021) but, again, the trend is clear. Solar is expected........

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