Global Market Outlook For Solar Power 2022-2026

Global solar capacity doubled in 3 years from 2018, bringing the world’s solar fleet to one Terawatt capacity in April 2022. The global solar market is growing exponentially. It took around a decade for world-wide solar capacity to reach 1 TW, from 100 GW in 2012. In just 3 years, SolarPower Europe predicts global solar to more than double to 2.3 TW in 2025.  

Solar remains the fastest growing renewable energy, representing over half of the 302 GW of renewable capacity installed internationally in 2021. With 168 GW of additions, solar installed over 70 GW more than the next greatest installer – wind – and more than all non-solar renewables combined.  

With a 14% annual growth rate and an all-time high of 54.9 GW of new solar, China kept its market leadership in 2021, adding twice as much solar power capacity than the second-largest market, the United States. The United States nonetheless saw impressive growth, with 42% more additional solar in 2021 than 2020. India reclaimed it’s third position with 14.2 GW of solar installations. 

The Europe region* continued its positive solar trajectory, achieving 31.8 GW of additional solar capacity – representing 33% growth and notably only a 0.1 GW difference to our 2021 Global Market Outlook projections. The impact of the Russian war on Ukraine, and the accompanying energy security challenges, alongside EU climate goals, are driving the continent’s renewable transition – with 25 of 27 EU member states set to install more solar in 2022 than 2021. 

*Europe region = EU27 + Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Iceland, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.