Top 5 Countries With The Fastest Increase In Solar Capacity In 2023

As 2023 comes to an end and 2024 is upon is, it could be considered an interesting exercise in retrospect to look upon the countries that shone in terms of adding solar capacity in the past year, leading the rest of us into the future. Here are the top 5 countries with the fastest increase in solar capacity in 2023.

 5. India

With rooftop solar becoming more and more affordable with a population ready to embrace it, it comes as no surprise that India is one of the world leaders when it comes to solar. The total capacity installed in 2023 comes out to about 10 gigawatts, which brings India’s total up to 72 gigawatts. India looks to make larger strides in 2024, with massive projects on the horizon with the funding to back them up. Anything under 15 GW will be a big dissapointment in 2024, especially progress on residential and C&I segments, which need to step up after a utility scale driven capacity building until now.

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 4. Germany

Home to an electric car growth rate of 14.39%, the country of Germany seems to have realized that its reliance on electricity is about to increase twofold. Solar capacity in Germany has gone up by 10.78% (14 GW) and is expected to go up by 12.80% each year for the next 5 years. The government has also passed laws encouraging renewable energy sources, which are expected to speed up the adoption of solar by a considerable margin. The country’s solar energy market size is expected to reach 137.88 GW by 2028. Germany is targeting a 30% share of renewables in final consumption by 2030. Besides Germany, the EU itself added almost 56 GW in 2023, a pace that is likely to be maintained in the future too.

 3. Japan

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A sleeper pick for this list, Japan has been slowly inching up the ranks, ending 2023 with an estimated 90 GW of solar capacity. The country looks to reach 370 GW of solar capacity by 2050 in an effort to cut down carbon emissions to zero. Japan is no stranger to alternative electricity sources, being the country that uses the kinetic energy from walking in stations to generate electricity. Additionally, a regulation has been passed in December 2022 as per which all new houses in Tokyo built by large-scale homebuilders after April 2025 must install solar power panels. The country also looks to conduct space to ground power transmission tests by fiscal 2025, along with flexible solar cells.

 2. USA

To no one’s surprise, the United States of America has made massive strides in solar in 2023, just like the years before it. With the Biden-Harris administration aiming for a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035, nearly 32 gigawatts of solar capacity have been installed in the US, bringing the total of the country up to 160 gigawatts. Innovations ranging from lightweight solar cells to cheaper, more efficient cells that connect to the internet of things have come out of the US in 2023 as well. Tesla’s solar roof has made solar cool, giving it a sleek look. The government has committed an additional 147 million dollars into increasing domestic solar manufacturing and recycling. The Inflation Reduction Act has also provided momentum of the sort that will drive additions right upto 2030 and beyond,

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 1. China

China continues to sit at the apex in terms of solar PV installed capacity. The 525 gigawatts installed by China completely dwarfs all other countries on the list, with the 128.94 gigawatts of solar capacity deployed in the first 9 months of 2023 being higher than some countries’ entire cumulative capacity. China continues to innovate in the solar sector, bringing about small improvements in the manufacturing of panels which further drives down costs. China is expected to remain the pre-eminent solar driver for the foreseeable future, thanks to it’s massive manufacturing base and integrated supply chains that power the solar sector worldwide.