Solar PV capacity by country

Solar PV capacity by country (MW). Share of total electricity consumption

On this webpage, you can find the rating of top solar photovoltaic generating countries, get to know the volume of solar PV capacity installed in each individual nation annually, and find the solar PV percentage of total electricity consumption by country and globally. The capacity installed is measured in megawatts.

  2015 2016 2017 2018 Share of total consumption
Country Added Total Added Total Added Total Added Total
China 15,150 43,530 34,540 78,070 53,000 131,000 45,000 175,018 3.3% (2018)
European Union 7,230 94,570   101,433   107,150 8,300 115,234 4.3% (2018)
USA 7,300 25,620 14,730 40,300 10,600 51,000 10,600 62,200 2.3% (2018)
Japan 11,000 34,410 8,600 42,750 7,000 49,000 6,500 55,500 6.8% (2018)
Germany 1,450 39,700 1,520 41,220 1,800 42,000 3,000 45,930 7.9% (2018)
India 2,000 5,050 3,970 9,010 9,100 18,300 10,800 26,869 5.4% (2018)
Italy 300 18,920 373 19,279 409 19,700   20,120 7.3% (2018)
United Kingdom 3,510 8,780 1,970 11,630 900 12,700   13,108 3.9% (2018)
Australia 935 5,070 839 5,900 1,250 7,200 3,800 11,300 6.3% (2018)
France 879 6,580 559 7,130 875 8,000   9,483 2.2% (2018)
South Korea 1,010 3,430 850 4,350 1,200 5,600 2,000 7,862 2.2% (2018)
Turkey     584 832 2,600 3,400 1,600 5,063 3.2% (2018)
Spain 56 5,400 55 5,490 147 5,600   4,744 2.7% (2018)
Netherlands 450 1,570 525 2,100 853 2,900 1,300 4,150 3.6% (2018)
Belgium 95 3,250 170 3,422 284 3,800   4,026 4.7% (2018)
Mexico     150 320 150 539 2,700 3,200 2.6% (2018)
Canada 600 2,500 200 2,715 212 2,900   3,113 0.6% (2018)
Thailand 121 1,420 726 2,150 251 2,700   2,720 2.3% (2018)
Greece 10 2,613           2,652 7.5% (2018)
Taiwan 400 1,010           2,618  
South Africa 200 1,120 536 1,450 13 1,800   2,559 1.4% (2018)
Brazil         900 1,100   2,296  
Switzerland 300 1,360 250 1,640 260 1,900 346 2,246 3.6% (2018)
Chile 446 848 746 1,610 668 1,800   2,137 7.1% (2018)
Czech Republic 16 2,083 48 2,131 63 2,193   2,078 3.5% (2018)
Ukraine 21 432 99 531 211 742 1,200 2,003 <1% (2017)
Pakistan 600 1,000           1,568  
Austria 150 937 154 1,077 153 1,250   1,431 2.0% (2018)
Romania 102 1,325           1,377 2.8% (2018)
Israel 200 881 130 910 60 1,100   1,070 4.5% (2018)
Bulgaria 1 1,029   1,028   1,036 0 1,036 3.8% (2018)
Denmark 183 789 70 900 60 910   998 2.9% (2018)
Philippines 122 155 756 900       886  
Portugal     58 513 57 577   670 2.2% (2018)
Hungary 60 138           665  
Russia 55 62 15 77 159 236 310 546  
Slovakia 1 591           531 2.1% (2018)
Honduras 391 391   414   451   516 14.0% (2018)
Poland 57 87           487  
Malaysia 63 231 54 286 50 386   438 0.8% (2018)
Sweden 51 130 60 175 93 303   421 0.4% (2018)
Iran 51 130 60 175 93 303   354 0.4% (2018)
Singapore               257 0.8% (2018)
Luxembourg 15 125   122   127   134  
Finland 5 20 17.4 37.4 23 80.4 53.1 133.5 0.2% (2018)
Malta 19 73 20 93 19 112   127 6.5% (2017)
Cyprus 5 70 14 84 21 105   113 3.3% (2016)
Lithuania 0 69 1 70 4 74 10 84  
Croatia 15 48 8 56 4 60 1 61  
Norway 2 15 11 26.7 18 45 23 68 0.0% (2018)
Total 59,000 256,000 76,800 306,500 95,000 401,500   510,000 2.55% (2017)

During the latest three decades, solar PV has been growing enormously fast. The PV systems have been developing from the first small-scale installations to huge gigawatt-scale solar farms covering dozens of square kilometers of land.

Nowadays, when the global strive toward clean energy generation is especially strong, nearly every nation in the world has photovoltaic power generating stations. The capacity installed in each individual country listed ranges from a few dozens to dozens of thousands of megawatts.

Starting from 2015, China has been ranking first in the race permanently. Its cumulative installed solar PV capacity is close to that of USA and all the countries of European Union taken together. In other words, it accounts for almost one third of the cumulative PV capacity installed globally.

As for the PV portion of the total power consumption, victory belongs to Germany, even though it is far from being the sunniest places on earth.

 

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