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Where is new solar power in the world being built?

  • Written by: Cutler Cleveland
  • Visualizations by: Xin Wang

Germany and Spain launched the modern solar photovoltaic (PV) industry with power plants coming online in the mid-2000s in the 20 to 60 MW range. They were quickly followed by China, the United States, South Africa, Japan, India, Germany, Turkey, France, and other European countries.  In recent years China has accounted for nearly one-third of new capacity additions in the world. By the end of 2021, at least seven countries had enough PV capacity installed to meet at least 10% of their electricity demand from solar PV.1

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1 REN21. 2022. Renewables 2022 Global Status Report (Paris: REN21 Secretariat)

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