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.
Solar energy is used all around the planet, but currently, China, Japan, and the United States lead the world in terms of total installed solar capacity. Here are the top ten countries ranked in terms of total installed solar in megawatts (MW):
There’s 1,053.1GW of solar capacity installed globally, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). We’ve come a long way since 2013, when the globe held just 140.5GW of solar capacity. Since then, our capacity has risen by 750%.
The United States conducted much early research in photovoltaics and concentrated solar power and is among the top countries in the world in deploying the technology, being home to 4 of the 10 largest utility-scale photovoltaic power stations in the world as of 2017.
Twenty-three countries of the mentioned 30 countries, about 76.7%, have no reported academic solar energy research yet.
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!