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In March, the world passed a major energy milestone, adding its third terawatt of solar power. Increasingly, poorer countries are leading the shift to solar, analysts say.
It took nearly seven decades, after the invention of the silicon solar cell in 1954, for the world to install 1 terawatt of solar capacity, conceivably enough to power the entire United States. After passing that milestone in 2022, the world added its second terawatt in 2024 and its third in 2026, Bloomberg reports.
BloombergNEF expects installations will continue apace, with the world hitting 9 terawatts of solar power by 2036. Analysts project that, by that date, poor countries will have installed more solar power than rich countries, China notwithstanding.
The first terawatt of solar was installed largely in wealthy nations, as governments subsidized renewable energy, Bloomberg reports. But since then, China has emerged as the global solar leader, installing huge amounts of solar while exporting inexpensive panels across the developing world.
The dynamic is most evident in countries hard hit by energy shocks, such as Pakistan, Nigeria, and Cuba. In the face of soaring fossil fuel prices, homeowners have begun snapping up imported solar panels.
The global solar boom is now spurring a push to build out transmission lines that can ferry energy from where it is produced to where it is needed, and fueling demand for batteries that can store up surplus power. Countries such as Pakistan, where energy shocks have spurred a solar buildout, have seen a surge in battery sales.
China, which is responsible for more than half of all solar installations globally, doubled its battery storage capacity last year, according to data from energy think tank Ember. And in its latest Five-Year Plan, it set a goal to ramp up the use of renewable energy by deploying yet more storage.
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