Karandikars & Associates

Solar Installed Capacity (GW)

Non-Hydro Renewables, largely comprising Solar and Wind, are often described as:

"Dreams of the 1970s",

"Realities but Luxuries of 2000s" and

"Necessities of 2020 and thereafter"

Current World electricity consumption is ~30,000 TWh, and total energy consumption including all forms of energy, expressed in TWh is ~180,000 TWh

Proponents of global solar energy highlight that the earth receives ~1.6 billion terawatt-hours of energy from the sun, which is ~nine thousand times world’s entire energy needs and that sun will remain a source of abundant energy for millions of years to come

The solar energy can be harnessed through solar photovoltaic technology (SPV) which enables direct conversion of sunlight into energy and solar thermal technologies (ST) which utilize heat content of solar energy into useful applications

Solar generation is intrinsically intermittent, generation starts from none during night, gradually increases after dawn and reaches a maximum around noon, and then gradually decreases and becomes zero with the advent of evening

Till the end of last century, solar energy had niche and small scale applications. However since then, due initially to subsidy programs around the world, and later due to dramatically lower capital costs, it has already become the largest renewable electricity source

During early development years, Solar generation capacity used to be measured in MW, and global solar capacity reached the first 1 GW mark in 2000

As at 2023, world installed solar capacity was 1,418.9 GW, that of India was 73.1 GW, that of China was 609.9 GW and that of US was 139.8 GW (Source: World Bank). Thus, China alone accounted for ~43% of global installed solar capacity

View the trends graphically

Global solar installations hit a record ~600 GW in 2024, with China leading (329 GW), while India added over 30 GW during the same year

While data for 2025 is not available, some estimates put end-2025 world installed solar capacity at ~2 TW, or 2,000 GW

Under its various scenarios to 2050, IEA expects global solar installed capacity to be 13,800 GW under Current Policies scenario, 20,374 GW under the State Policies scenario and 35,509 GW under the Net Zero emissions scenario in the terminal year

Starting with an installed capacity of ~2,000 GW as at end 2025, we tested our stylised S curve logic using ultimate potential at 20,000 GW (close to the Stated Policy scenario), and giving an input of achieving 50% of the ultimate potential by the year 2035. Under these assumptions, the highest annual capacity addition requirement crosses the 1,000 GW mark in 2036, before tapering down

If we take ultimate potential at 35,000 GW and input achievement of 50% of this by 2040, the highest annual capacity addition requirement is 1,746 GW, in 2040

Users can input their own assumptions and see the capacity development profile as also annual capacity additions profile, and assess the reasonableness of the S-Curve logic

Click here to visit Input Page