Image: Global solar power is doubling every three years

Description: Record solar increase in 2024 as solar power maintains high growth rates Solar power surged by a record 474 TWh in 2024, the largest annual growth ever recorded in absolute terms and the fastest increase in six years (+29%). Solar power has maintained its extraordinarily high growth rates even as the technology has become the primary driver of new electricity generation. As a result, solar generation has doubled every three years, reaching 2,131 TWh in 2024. For the third consecutive year, solar recorded the largest absolute increase of any electricity source. For the 20th year in a row, it remained the fastest-growing power source. The surge in 2024 was driven by record solar capacity installations in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, new capacity installations jumped by 86% compared with 2022. In 2024, they increased by a further 30%, to a total of 585 GW. As capacity is installed throughout the year, a proportion of it only results in generation increases the following year.

Solar generation growth from the recent capacity boom was potentially even larger than observed, as reporting from distributed solar, such as rooftop installations, can be incomplete. Ember’s data includes rooftop solar generation where possible and includes estimates in countries with large amounts of rooftop solar where reporting is inaccurate, but some underestimation is likely.
Author: Ember Energy
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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