The war in the Middle East has led to a real energy crisis on a global scale, however, this is significantly mitigated by the exponential development of renewable energies.
Notable savings!
According to a study conducted by the think tank Ember, which aspires to a future global energy system that is cheaper, cleaner, more efficient, and safer, solar and wind energies saw a record expansion worldwide in 2025, representing more than a seventh of the global gas production.
If this might seem relatively small, their impact is nevertheless already visible. Indeed, since the start of the conflict in the Middle East on February 28, existing wind and solar capacities worldwide have helped reduce the impact of the energy crisis.
As a result, they have avoided the production of about 330 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity from gas, which also represents a potential saving of over 40 billion dollars.
In other words, the impact of the conflict in the Middle East could have been even more significant without renewable energies, especially as oil and gas prices have soared in recent weeks, without pun intended.
Thus, at current market prices, the savings on gas imports would amount to approximately 138 billion dollars. Therefore, as highlighted by Kingmill Bond, an Ember analyst: “Renewable energies offer importers a real path to energy security, a less costly, faster to deploy, and geopolitically unconstrained solution.”
The rise of solar and wind
This energy crisis resulting from the conflict in the Middle East underscores the importance of reducing our energy dependency on oil and gas, a goal that is well on track according to Ember experts. The extent and speed of solar energy development are unprecedented in the energy sector in recent years.
According to Ember, 814 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity were added worldwide in 2025. Thus, the total combined global capacity of these two renewable energies now exceeds 4 terawatts, with solar energy accounting for the largest share of these capacities at 2.9 terawatts by the end of 2025.
On the other hand, wind energy is also making significant progress, representing a global capacity of about 1.3 terawatts by the end of 2025. However, there is still a long way to go before these renewable energies become the majority on a global scale.
In 2024, according to the Energy Institute, global commercialized energy production was divided into 33.6% oil, 27.9% coal, 25.1% natural gas, 5.2% nuclear, and 8.2% renewables, including 2.7% hydroelectricity and 5.5% wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, and biofuels combined.
Therefore, while we are indeed on the right track, especially considering the evolution of solar and wind energy in recent years, a radical change is not yet imminent. While solar energies are indeed helping to alleviate the current energy crisis, it remains a current issue with the economic implications it entails.
Article reference:
Without renewable energies, the global energy crisis would be much more significant revealed a study, Geo and AFP, 26/03/2026
