Top 10 Solar Power Countries

I hope you're right. Long overdue.

Nuclear would be much more reliable and even safer, but people seem to be deathly afraid of it for no good reason.

At the current rates of growth, how soon before it accounts for 200% of electricity production?

It's CO₂, not CO²!!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Coal production continues to grow at about 2.8% per year and makes up about 27% of the global energy supply [call global energy supply 'E'], so it increases by 2.8%*.27E = .756% of E every year.

If solar makes up 1.05% of the energy supply and grows at 50% per year, that means every year it grows by 50%*.0105E = .525% of E every year.

Coal energy is currently growing faster, in raw numbers.

If the growth in solar energy remains the same relative to its share of the energy market, then it should eventually 'dominate' over coal, but as long as coal and other fossil fuels continue to grow as well it does nothing useful for CO2 reductions. Both are driven by rising energy demand; they don't supplant the other.

The good news is that the growth of fossil fuel energy should slow and then reverse as solar energy becomes the cheaper alternative, and it is price reductions for solar, not its growth rate, that mean solar will, hopefully, dominate in the next 10-20 years.

Nuclear is the anwser. Solar is ineffecient in the northern half of Europe in the winter and we wont have good storage batteries for a long time. Nuclear is much saver than most people think.

lets give a hand for vietnam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, China knows that building coal plants at the rate they have been is totally unsustainable if they want air that isn't going to actively kill them.

For those pointing out China still builds coal plants, this is absolutely true.

However, China is mostly building supercritical and ultrasupercritical coal power plants. These plants are far more efficient than the smog producing monsters that you generally think about. About 22% more energy per ton of coal burned but also a fraction of the nitrous, sulfur, or particulate emissions of subcritical plants. They also tightened their emissions standards. It will take a long time to replace their existing dirty fleet of coal plants, but that is generally what they're doing.

So while they're building new coal plants, they CAN be cleaning up their emissions. Similar to how we have cleaned up ours by replacing coal with natural gas.

That's so awesome! :D

Massive increase in UK was probably due to government grants being available to home owners that meant adding solar panels to homes was virtually cost free

6 years later, soo brazil solar growth between 2016 and 2020 and its only growing faster. Brazil was just late for the party, as brazilians usually are hahaha

Of those I would say 2, 3 and 6 appear to be most important. Otherwise Germany, Japan, France, the UK, Spain and Italy wouldn't be here. Though actually 4 may apply in some cases there too. But for the other four yeah geographic area plays a large role I expect.

I don't like to be a naysayer, but I'm with you on this one. Going solar is great, but I also think we need to put more emphasis on how to lower overall demands for energy rather than find more ways to meet growing demands. Do we really need bigger cars, bigger houses, bigger commercial buildings, etc? Solar helps us leave a smaller footprint, but it's only one solution to the problem. I grew up when our big cars got eight miles to the gallon but no one cared because we could always find a gas war where gasoline was 19 cents per gallon. We grew up with the idea that energy was limitless, and good living meant a bigger house, bigger car, more TVs, etc. I hope the next generations are better at embracing the "less is more" attitude and will be more conservative of what we have in addition to finding ways to generate more.

The UK has about 60% more capacity and 200% more people. Back of the envelope calculations say that Australia produces about twice as much per person. In addition Australia has loads of coal reserves that are easily recoverable. The UK doesn't have that luxury any more.

Australia has given tax breaks to coal industry for years and years which has made it hard for renewables like solar to compete. This is changing but only slowly.

Easy to say that, but before celebrating Vietnam, take a look at this quiz. Also, Vietnam's off this list now. I think it's less that Vietnam is becoming a leader in clean energy and more that it's energy demand has grown a lot and it uses whatever sources it can to meet its energy needs.

Vietnam deserves an exclamation.

That's an even major power than storage in some places of the world