Solar power is the fastest-growing renewable energy source in the world. But what country uses the most solar power? The leader in solar energy is China, at 306,973 MW total solar capacity, but that’s due to its colossal size; solar power accounts for only around 3.5% of total energy consumption.
While China, the US, and Japan are the top three installers, China's relative contribution accounts for nearly 37% of the entire solar installation in 2022. Fig. 1 illustrates the contribution of energy sources to both electricity generation and total installed power capacity by 2050.
China has the largest solar energy capacity in the world, at 306,973 MW, which is 35.8% of the entire world solar capacity. What is the global capacity of solar electricity? According to PV Magazine, the world had installed around 1 TW (terawatt) of solar capacity as of March 2022. How many MW are in a TW? One million megawatts!
As shown in Fig. 1, by 2050, solar PV technology is projected to have the largest installed capacity (8519 GW), making it the second most prominent generation source behind wind power, and it is expected to generate approximately 25% of total electricity needs by 2050. Table 1. Global installed solar capacity from 2013 to 2022. Table 2.
Overall, the Asia Pacific region is leading the solar energy transition, with six countries in this region: China, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, and Vietnam, ranking among the top 15. Asian countries are making a concerted effort to transition to renewable energies, given their high energy demand and heavy reliance on coal for energy.
In 2023, China was the country with the largest energy production from solar, with some 584 terawatt hours. The United States ranked second by a wide margin, with less than half of China's production. India and Japan were third and fourth in the ranking, respectively. Get notified via email when this statistic is updated. * For commercial use only
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Armenia due its geographical and climate properties is well-suited for the solar energy utilization. According to the Ministry of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources of Armenia the country is capable of producing 1850 kWh/m per year. For comparison European countries are capable of around 1000 kWh/m per year on average. Two main panel types utilized in Armenia are the photovoltaic