The Global Solar Council leads the worldwide solar industry today (Nov 8) in the celebration of achieving 2 TW of installed solar PV capacity against the backdrop of a Donald Trump presidency in the U.S. and a pivotal COP29 slated to begin next week in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The deployment of solar energy has exponentially accelerated in recent years, carrying with it dramatic cost reductions that make solar now the cheapest form of energy available to consumers in many countries across the globe.
2 terawatts of solar PV now installed
It took the solar PV industry 68 years to reach 1 TW of installed capacity - from 1954-2022. It has taken only 2 years to reach the next TW (2022-2024), with the 2 TW milestone reached in recent weeks according to estimates calculated by the Global Solar Council and SolarPower Europe.
The milestone highlights how solar energy is becoming the backbone of the global energy system. Notably, 2 TW of solar is equivalent to the total installed electricity capacity of India, the USA and UK combined and could power an estimated one billion homes, based on a global average household energy consumption of 3,500 kWh per year and a 20% capacity factor.
Source: Global Solar Council
"The unprecedented roll-out of solar worldwide, and now the fact that we have made this 2 terawatt milestone, or about 7 billion solar panels installed, is the culmination of decades of hard work. Forward-thinking policy, industrial ingenuity, 7 million hard-working solar installers and a versatile and scalable technology have all brought us to this moment," said Sonia Dunlop, Global Solar Council CEO. "But as we pause to recognize the achievement, it's only for a minute. Solar must now double installation capacity to reach 1 terawatt per year if we're going to reach our global tripling renewables target. We need to celebrate the 25 million solar homes and now double it. To get there we need to unlock financing and bring down the cost of capital for solar projects, particularly in the Global South. If the cost of capital is now at 15%, we need to bring it down to 5% or less. This is what we will be working on at COP29 Baku."
To reach the goal of tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030 to keep the world on a 1.5C pathway, more financing needs to be unlocked for solar, especially in emerging and developing markets.
