Solar power generation by region comparison table

What percentage of global electricity production is renewable?

In 2016, as depicted in Fig. 1, renewables contributed to about 30% of the global installed capacity, providing nearly a quarter of global electricity production. The solar power (PV+CSP) accounted for nearly 8% of the renewable electricity production.

Which countries have the most solar PV installed capacity in 2022?

In 2022, the most significant expansion in the solar PV market occurred in China, the US, and India, with increments of 86.1 GW, 17.8 GW, and 13.5 GW, respectively (IRENA, 2023). Fig. 2 shows the contribution of each continent in the world's solar PV installed capacity in 2018, followed by 2030 and 2050 based on IRENA’s REmap analysis.

What determines the geographical variability of solar energy yield?

The geographical variability of the solar energy yield is primarily driven by the distribution of the solar resource. The global pattern of the resource (theoretical PV potential) is determined mainly by latitude, occurrence of clouds, terrain elevation and shading, atmospheric aerosol concentration, and atmo-spheric moisture content.

What is the contribution of solar energy to global electricity production?

While the contribution of solar energy to global electricity production remains generally low at 3.6%, it has firmly established itself among other renewable energy technologies, comprising nearly 31% of the total installed renewable energy capacity in 2022 (IRENA, 2023).

What statistics describe the country solar power potential?

Other statistics (minima, maxima, percentiles) describe the country solar power potential in better detail. Distribution of a photovoltaic power output histogram communicates how much land in the country is available in practical potential Levels 0, 1, and 2, and various PVOUT ranges.

What is a solar resource database?

It is provided by the World Bank Group as a free service to governments, developers and the general public, and allows users to quickly obtain data and carry out a simple electricity output calculation for any location covered by the solar resource database.