Solar Power Becomes the World's Largest Installed Electricity Capacity
By the end of 2025, global solar photovoltaic capacity had reached about 2,800 GW, making it the technology with the largest installed capacity.
It is a shift that few analysts considered possible fifteen years ago: installed solar generation capacity worldwide now exceeds that of coal-fired power plants.
Exponential growth
Photovoltaic power breaks installation records year after year, driven by a dramatic fall in costs. Producing one megawatt-hour of solar electricity now costs a fraction of what it did in the early 2010s.
In most countries, solar has become the cheapest source of new electricity capacity to deploy.
Capacity is not generation
Installed capacity measures maximum potential, not the electricity actually produced.
Because solar generates electricity only when sunlight is available, coal still produces more electricity worldwide. The next milestone, overtaking coal in actual generation, will depend on the large-scale deployment of storage and the modernisation of power grids.
The signal is nevertheless strong: global investment in clean energy now far exceeds investment in fossil fuels.
- Installed solar capacity now exceeds coal capacity worldwide.
- Falling costs have made solar the cheapest source of new electricity in most countries.
- Coal still leads in actual generation, and storage is the next major challenge.
Read the original article on Agence internationale de l’énergie