It took 68 years for the world to reach 1 terawatt of solar PV capacity. It took just two years to double it

Global installed solar PV capacity has reportedly hit 2 terawatts (TW), according to estimates calculated by the Global Solar Council and SolarPower Europe.

Though it took 68 years to reach 1 TW of installed solar PV capacity, it took only two more years to reach 2TW, according to the Global Solar Council.

“The unprecedented roll-out of solar worldwide, and now the fact that we have made this 2TW milestone, or about 7 billion solar panels installed, is the culmination of decades of hard work,” said Sonia Dunlop, CEO of the Global Solar Council.

“Forward-thinking policy, industrial ingenuity, 7 million hard-working solar installers and a versatile and scalable technology have all brought us to this moment.”

Putting the scale of this achievement in context, 2TW of solar is equivalent to the total installed electricity capacity of India, the United States, and United Kingdom combined and could power an estimated one billion homes.

“But as we pause to recognize the achievement, it’s only for a minute,” added Dunlop.

“Solar must now double installation capacity to reach 1 terawatt per year if we’re going to reach our global tripling renewables target. We need to celebrate the 25 million solar homes and now double it.”

While an annual terawatt target sounds daunting, it is not unreasonable, considering existing achievements. Annual installation figures for solar PV are currently sitting at around 500GW, while the global solar PV manufacturing capacity has already reached 1.1TW.

The issue remains, then, financing and deployment, even as the solar PV industry itself has proven it can meet the technological challenges.

“To get there we need to unlock financing and bring down the cost of capital for solar projects, particularly in the Global South,” said Dunlop.

“If the cost of capital is now at 15 per cent, we need to bring it down to 5 per cent or less. This is what we will be working on at COP29 Baku.”

Specifically, the Global Solar Council is planning to launch a “first-of-its-kind” international solar finance group at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, which gets underway in Baku today.

The International Solar Finance Group will aim to create the world’s first ever global dialogue between the solar PV industry and the finance sector in an effort to bridge the financial gap between solar ambition and actual deployment.

Ambition for the Group is to reduce the cost of capital for solar in developing economies from 15 per cent to 5 per cent so as to remove the financing barrier and boost deployment.

The inaugural session of the Solar Finance Group will take place in Baku on November 15, laying out an agenda to develop financial solutions and frameworks targeting making solar investments more accessible and attractive, especially in emerging markets, by engaging both private sector investors and development banks.