PV Additions

Solar PV additions at a glance

Solar Photovoltaic (PV)

Solar PV is currently the fastest growing renewable energy sector. Key features [IEA, 2025]:

The world added btw 553-601 GW in 2024, raising total capacity to 2,260 GW (IRENA: 1,865 TW):
- 373 GW (62%) were centralized and 228 GW were distributed, connected to local consumption.
- Utility-scale installations made up 57% of capacity in 2024.
China accounted for nearly 60% of all new installations, adding btw 309-357 GW of solar in 2024.
U.S. held onto 2nd, with 47 GW.
India installed 32 GW.
Germany installed 17.2 GW.
Brazil installed 15.2 GW of solar PV capacity in 2024 [ABSOLAR, 2024].
- By Aug/25, total operational capacity reached 60 GW (42.1 GW of DG and 17.9 GW of utility-scale). PV is now the country’s 2nd-largest power source, with 23.5% of installed capacity [ABSOLAR, 2025].
China accounted for 86.4% of global PV module production in 2024. Outside of China production was modest: India produced 24 GW, followed by U.S. with 23 GW, and Vietnam w/ around 20 GW.
In 2022, 96% of PV shipments were mono c-Si (Monocrystalline silicon) tech, compared to 35% in 2015 [NREL, 2023],.
Solar’s next growth phase is about maximising land use: floating solar, agrivoltaics and earth mount solar are some alternative means of implementing large-scale solar [WM, 2023].
Figure 1 lists the top 10 global solar PV markets in 2024 in terms of installations & cumulative capacity.
Figure 2 shows the top 10 global solar PV markets in terms of PV additions over 2021–2022 period.
Figure 3 shows the LCOE progress btw 2010-2020, and the 2030 targets for solar PV & CSP in U.S., w/o the investment tax credit or state/local incentives.
Figure 4 shows solar module prices by manufacturing location, showing that China’s cost advantage will continue to drive down solar prices.

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

After grew five-fold globally btw 2010-2019 [Helio s CSP, 2020], global Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) installed capacity reached around 6.4 GW in 2022, with 1.3 GW under construction. Spain embraced CSP tech in 2008 and remains the world leader (see here its plants), followed by the U.S. and China [NREL, 2023].